February 3, 2023
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Using an AI model similar to the one powering internet darling ChatGPT, the California-based biotech Profluent has created novel antimicrobial proteins, and they’ve already proven capable of killing bacteria in the lab.
The successful proteins, published in Nature Biotechnology, were part of the first clutch of designs generated by Profluent’s AI platform, ProGen.
ProGen is a large language model (LLM), a form of Deep Learning AI that utilizes a universe’s worth of text as its training data, developing the ability to analyze and generate language — like ChatGPT, except in Progen’s case the language is that of proteins.
“While companies are experimenting with exciting new biotechnology like CRISPR genome editing by repurposing what nature has given us, we’re doing something different,” Ali Madani, Profluent’s founder, said in a statement announcing the startups’ launch.
“We use AI and large language models like the ones which power ChatGPT to learn the fundamental language of biology, and design new proteins which have the potential to cure diseases.”
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Tags: AI platform, antibiotics, antimicrobial proteins, bacteria, ChatGPT, Deep learning AI, large language model, LLM, lysozymes, Profluent, ProGen, protein sequences
February 2, 2023
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A new way to significantly increase the potency of almost any vaccine has been developed by researchers from the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) at Northwestern University.
The scientists used chemistry and nanotechnology to change the structural location of adjuvants and antigens on and within a nanoscale vaccine, greatly increasing vaccine performance. The antigen targets the immune system, and the adjuvant is a stimulator that increases the effectiveness of the antigen.
“The work shows that vaccine structure and not just the components is a critical factor in determining vaccine efficacy,” said lead investigator Chad A. Mirkin, director of the IIN. “Where and how we position the antigens and adjuvant within a single architecture markedly changes how the immune system recognizes and processes it."
This new heightened emphasis on structure has the potential to improve the effectiveness of conventional cancer vaccines, which historically have not worked well, Mirkin said.
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| Tags: adjuvant, antigen-, colon cancer, IIN, International Institute for Nanotechnology, melanoma, nanoscale vaccine, nanotechnology, Northwestern University, papillomavirus-induced cervical cancer, prostate cancer, SNAs, spherical nucleic acids, T-cells, triple negative breast cancer, tumour, vaccine, vaccines' architecture
February 1, 2023
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Eight years ago, a patient lost her power of speech because of ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, which causes progressive paralysis. She can still make sounds, but her words have become unintelligible, leaving her reliant on a writing board or iPad to communicate.
Now, after volunteering to receive a brain implant, the woman has been able to rapidly communicate phrases like “I don’t own my home” and “It’s just tough” at a rate approaching normal speech.
That is the claim in a paper published over the weekend on the website bioRxiv by a team at Stanford University. The study has not been formally reviewed by other researchers. The scientists say their volunteer, identified only as “subject T12,” smashed previous records by using the brain-reading implant to communicate at a rate of 62 words a minute, three times the previous best.
Philip Sabes, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the project, called the results a “big breakthrough” and said that experimental brain-reading technology could be ready to leave the lab and become a useful product soon.
“The performance in this paper is already at a level which many people who cannot speak would want, if the device were ready,” says Sabes. “People are going to want this.” People without speech deficits typically talk at a rate of about 160 words a minute. Even in an era of keyboards, thumb-typing, emojis, and internet abbreviations, speech remains the fastest form of human-to-human communication.
The new research was carried out at Stanford University. The preprint, published January 21, began drawing extra attention on Twitter and other social media because of the death the same day of its co-lead author, Krishna Shenoy, from pancreatic cancer.
Shenoy had devoted his career to improving the speed of communication through brain interfaces, carefully maintaining a list of records on his laboratory website. In 2019, another volunteer Shenoy worked with managed to use his thoughts to type at a rate of 18 words a minute, a record performance at the time.
Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/
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| Tags: ALS, brain implant, brain-interface, paralysis, San Francisco, speech, Stanford, University of California
January 31, 2023
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In the world of artificial intelligence, the idea of “singularity” looms large. This slippery concept describes the moment AI exceeds beyond human control and rapidly transforms society. The tricky thing about AI singularity (and why it borrows terminology from black hole physics) is that it’s enormously difficult to predict where it begins and nearly impossible to know what’s beyond this technological “event horizon.”
However, some AI researchers are on the hunt for signs of reaching singularity measured by AI progress approaching the skills and ability comparable to a human. One such metric, defined by Translated, a Rome-based translation company, is an AI’s ability to translate speech at the accuracy of a human. Language is one of the most difficult AI challenges, but a computer that could close that gap could theoretically show signs of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
“That’s because language is the most natural thing for humans,” Translated CEO Marco Trombetti said at a conference in Orlando, Florida, in December. “Nonetheless, the data Translated collected clearly shows that machines are not that far from closing the gap.”
The company tracked its AI’s performance from 2014 to 2022 using a metric called “Time to Edit,” or TTE, which calculates the time it takes for professional human editors to fix AI-generated translations compared to human ones. Over that 8-year period and analyzing over 2 billion post-edits, Translated’s AI showed a slow, but undeniable improvement as it slowly closed the gap toward human-level translation quality.
On average, it takes a human translator roughly one second to edit each word of another human translator, according to Translated. In 2015, it took professional editors approximately 3.5 seconds per word to check a machine-translated (MT) suggestion — today that number is just 2 seconds. If the trend continues, Translated’s AI will be as good as human-produced translation by the end of the decade (or even sooner).
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| Tags: AGI, AI, artificial general intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, language, MT, singularity, speech, Time to Edit, Translated, translation, TTE
January 30, 2023
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Wharton professor Christian Terwiesch recently tested the technology with questions from his final exam in operations management— which was once a required class for all MBA students — and published his findings.
Terwiesch concluded that the bot did an “amazing job” answering basic operations questions based on case studies, which are focused examinations of a person, group, or company, and a common way business schools teach students.
In other instances though, ChatGPT made simple mistakes in calculations that Terwiesch thought only required 6th-grade-level math. Terwiesch also noted that the bot had issues with more complex questions that required an understanding of how multiple inputs and outputs worked together.
Ultimately, Terwiesch said the bot would receive an B or B- on the exam.
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| Tags: Axios, business analyst, ChatGPT, exam, lawyer, United States Medical Licensing Exam, virtual doctor, Wharton
January 27, 2023
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Scientists are harnessing a new way to turn cancer cells into potent, anti-cancer agents. In the latest work from the lab of Khalid Shah, MS, PhD, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, investigators have developed a new cell therapy approach to eliminate established tumors and induce long-term immunity, training the immune system so that it can prevent cancer from recurring. The team tested their dual-action, cancer-killing vaccine in an advanced mouse model of the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma, with promising results.
“Our team has pursued a simple idea: to take cancer cells and transform them into cancer killers and vaccines,” said corresponding author Khalid Shah, MS, PhD, director of the Center for Stem Cell and Translational Immunotherapy (CSTI) and the vice chair of research in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Brigham and faculty at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI). “Using gene engineering, we are repurposing cancer cells to develop a therapeutic that kills tumor cells and stimulates the immune system to both destroy primary tumors and prevent cancer.”
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| Tags: Brigham and Women's Hospital, cancer, cancer-killing vaccine, Cell Therapy, Center for Stem Cell and Translational Immunotherapy, CRISPR-Cas9, CSTI, Gene-editing, Glioblastoma, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, HSCI, inactivated tumor cells, living tumor cells, long-term immunity, Mass General Brigham, therapeutic tumor cells, ThTC, tumors
January 26, 2023
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NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Tuesday a collaboration to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space, an enabling capability for NASA crewed missions to Mars. NASA and DARPA will partner on the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program.
“NASA will work with our long-term partner, DARPA, to develop and demonstrate advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology as soon as 2027. With the help of this new technology, astronauts could journey to and from deep space faster than ever – a major capability to prepare for crewed missions to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
Using a nuclear thermal rocket allows for faster transit time, reducing risk for astronauts. Reducing transit time is a key component for human missions to Mars, as longer trips require more supplies and more robust systems. Maturing faster, more efficient transportation technology will help NASA meet its Moon to Mars Objectives.
Other benefits to space travel include increased science payload capacity and higher power for instrumentation and communication. In a nuclear thermal rocket engine, a fission reactor is used to generate extremely high temperatures. The engine transfers the heat produced by the reactor to a liquid propellant, which is expanded and exhausted through a nozzle to propel the spacecraft. Nuclear thermal rockets can be three or more times more efficient than conventional chemical propulsion.
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| Tags: DARPA, deep space, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, DRACO, Mars, NASA, Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application, nuclear thermal propulsion, nuclear thermal rocket engine, space, Space Technology Mission Directorate, space travel, spacecraft, STMD
January 25, 2023
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University Hospitals Galway (UHG) in Ireland has carried out the first Robotic Guided Coronary Intervention. The innovative procedure combines the benefits of coronary intervention with the precision of robotics, offering a range of benefits to patients. The new technology is used in stent procedures to relieve blockages in the arteries of the heart. It allows for greater precision in positioning stents, allowing the Interventional Cardiologists to move the stent a millimetre at a time.
It also allows the medical team to have an enhanced, close up view of the angiographic images and information during the entire procedure. The scientific breakthrough allows Interventional Cardiologists to use the robot as an extension of their own hand, allowing for robotic precision and details visualization when positioning of guide catheters, guidewires and balloon/stent catheters.
“Robotic innovation has come a long way in the last decade. And we in Galway are delighted to have performed the first Robotic Guided Coronary Intervention in Ireland and the UK.”, said Prof Faisal Sharif, who carried out the first procedure in UHG. The Consultant Cardiologist welcomed the addition of the CorPath Robotic Angioplasy as a game changer.
“The main advantage of robotics is that it is safe and very precise in stent placement. It allows the accurate placement for up to 1mm at a time,” he said. The use of robotics in the procedure will also benefit staff, reducing their exposure to radiation. “Traditionally, the coronary stent placement procedure is performed in the Cardiac Cath Lab resulting in staff exposure to radiation. The second main advantage of using Robotics is the reduction in radiation exposure for the staff.”
“We recently successfully completed the first case and going forward we will be performing these procedures regularly,” added Prof Sharif.
Source: https://www.saolta.ie/
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| Tags: angiographic images, arteries, CorPath Robotic Angioplasy, heart, Irland, radiation, robot, Robotic Guided Coronary Intervention, stent, UHG, University Hospitals Galway
January 24, 2023
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Researchers have developed a new tool and technique that uses “vortex ultrasound” – a sort of ultrasonic tornado – to break down blood clots in the brain. The new approach worked more quickly than existing techniques to eliminate clots formed in an in vitro model of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST).
“Our previous work looked at various techniques that use ultrasound to eliminate blood clots using what are essentially forward-facing waves,” says Xiaoning Jiang, co-corresponding author of a paper on the work. “Our new work uses vortex ultrasound, where the ultrasound waves have a helical wavefront. “In other words, the ultrasound is swirling as it moves forward,” says Jiang, who is the Dean F. Duncan Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University. “Based on our in vitro testing, this approach eliminates blood clots more quickly than existing techniques, largely because of the shear stress induced by the vortex wave.”
“The fact that our new technique works quickly is important, because CVST clots increase pressure on blood vessels in the brain,” says Chengzhi Shi, co-corresponding author of the work and an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech. “This increases the risk of a hemorrhage in the brain, which can be catastrophic for patients. “Existing techniques rely in large part on interventions that dissolve the blood clot. But this is a time-consuming process. Our approach has the potential to address these clots more quickly, reducing risk for patients.”
CVST occurs when a blood clot forms in the veins responsible for draining blood from the brain. Incidence rates of CVST were between 2 and 3 per 100,000 in the United States in 2018 and 2019, and the incidence rate appears to be increasing.
“Another reason our work here is important is that current treatments for CVST fail in 20-40% of cases,” Jiang says.
Source: https://news.ncsu.edu/
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| Tags: Blood Clot, brain, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, CVST, Georgia Tech, hemorrhage, North Carolina State University, ultrasonic tornado, vortex ultrasound
January 23, 2023
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A team of researchers led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has developed a novel delivery system for messenger RNA (mRNA) using extracellular vesicles (EVs). The new technique has the potential to overcome many of the delivery hurdles faced by other promising mRNA therapies.
In the study, published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the researchers use EV-encapsulated mRNA to initiate and sustain collagen production for several months in the cells of photoaged skin in laboratory models. It is the first therapy to demonstrate this ability and represents a proof-of-concept for deploying the EV mRNA therapy.
“This is an entirely new modality for delivering mRNA,” said corresponding author Betty Kim, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Neurosurgery. “We used it in our study to initiate collagen production in cells, but it has the potential to be a delivery system for a number of mRNA therapies that currently have no good method for being delivered.”
The genetic code for building specific proteins is contained in mRNA but delivering mRNA within the body is one of the largest hurdles facing clinical applications of many mRNA-based therapies. The current COVID-19 vaccines, which marked the first widespread use of mRNA therapy, use lipid nanoparticles for delivery, and the other primary delivery systems for genetic materials so far have been viral based. However, each of these approaches comes with certain limitations and challenges.
Extracellular vesicles are small structures created by cells that transport biomolecules and nucleic acids in the body. These naturally occurring particles can be modified to carry mRNAs, which gives them the benefit of innate biocompatibility without triggering a strong immune response, allowing them to be administered multiple times. Additionally, their size allows them to carry even the largest human genes and proteins.
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| Tags: biomolecules, cells, COL1A1 mRNA, collagen, collagen production, ev, extracellular vesicles, genetic, immune response, lipid nanoparticles, messenger RNA, mRNA, nucleic acids, photoaged skin, proteins, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, WRINKLES
January 20, 2023
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A new kind of solar panel, developed at the University of Michigan, has achieved 9% efficiency in converting water into hydrogen and oxygen—mimicking a crucial step in natural photosynthesis. Outdoors, it represents a major leap in the technology, nearly 10 times more efficient than solar water-splitting experiments of its kind.
But the biggest benefit is driving down the cost of sustainable hydrogen. This is enabled by shrinking the semiconductor, typically the most expensive part of the device. The team’s self-healing semiconductor withstands concentrated light equivalent to 160 suns.
Currently, humans produce hydrogen from the fossil fuel methane, using a great deal of fossil energy in the process. However, plants harvest hydrogen atoms from water using sunlight. As humanity tries to reduce its carbon emissions, hydrogen is attractive as both a standalone fuel and as a component in sustainable fuels made with recycled carbon dioxide. Likewise, it is needed for many chemical processes, producing fertilizers for instance.
“In the end, we believe that artificial photosynthesis devices will be much more efficient than natural photosynthesis, which will provide a path toward carbon neutrality,” said Zetian Mi, U-M professor of electrical and computer engineering who led the study reported in Nature.
https://news.umich.edu/
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| Tags: carbon emissions, fertilizers, fossil energy, hydrogen, methane, photosynthesis, recycled carbon dioxide, semiconductor, solar panel, University of Michigan, water splitting
January 19, 2023
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A new blood test that tracks the breakdown of nerve cells in the brain in Alzheimer's disease. It is an innovation that is now being presented by researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, together with colleagues in Italy, Great Britain and the United States.
In recent years, great progress has been made in the development of blood tests, so-called biomarkers, for screening and monitoring various disease processes in Alzheimer's disease. Partly, it has involved identifying amyloid plaques in the brain (formed by the protein beta-amyloid) via blood samples, and in later research also the formation of neurofibrils, small thread-like protein structures that consist of a modified (phosphorylated) form of the nerve cell protein tau.
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| Tags: Alzheimer's, amyloid plaques, BD-tau, beta-amyloid, biomarkers, blood test, brain, brain-derived tau, nerve cell, nerve cells, neurofibrils, protein, protein Tau, spinal fluid, University of Gothenburg
January 18, 2023
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Undergoing clinical trials around the world is a brain surgery that doesn’t need an incision or produce any blood yet drastically improves the lives of people with essential tremor, depression and more. The procedure, known as a focused ultrasound, aims sound waves at parts of the brain to disrupt faulty brain circuits causing symptoms.
Pictured are scans of a 80-year-old patient's brain. Focused ultrasound signficantly improved the tremors.
“Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive therapeutic technology,” said Dr. Neal Kassell, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. “We’ve said that focused ultrasound is the most powerful sound you will never hear, but sound that someday could save your life.”
Kassell describes the way it works as “analogous to using a magnifying glass to focus beams of light on a point and burn a hole in a leaf.” “With focused ultrasound, instead of using an optical lens to focus beams of light,” he added, “an acoustic lens is used to focus multiple beams of ultrasound energy on targets deep in the body with a high degree of precision and accuracy, sparing the adjacent normal tissue.”
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| Tags: brain, depression, essential tremor, focused ultrasound, Focused Ultrasound Foundation, ultrasound, University of Virginia, WAVE
January 17, 2023
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Scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre have discovered that a protein, called Menin, contributes to abnormal deactivation of specific genes in cancer cells.
One of the hallmarks of cancer is that the normal regulation of genes is disrupted, and this causes cancer cells to look and behave differently to normal cells. Cancer cells can switch off certain genes, keeping them in a dormant state. By deactivating specific immune genes, some cancers are able to evade detection by the immune system, essentially becoming invisible. This allows the cancer to grow and become more aggressive.
By targeting the Menin protein using drug therapies, the researchers believe they can reactivate these genes, making the cancer cells once again visible and allowing the immune system to seek out and destroy them.
The findings, published in Nature Cell Biology, could lead to new and more effective treatments for lymphoma and lung cancer.
Professor Mark Dawson, from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, said the findings help scientists learn more about how cells function.
“Our research discovery has major implications for many different fields of research because we need to understand how cells make decisions and change the way they act in order to find new ways to treat cancer,” Professor Dawson said.
Source: https://www.anu.edu.au/
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| Tags: ANU, Australian National University, cancer cells, genes, immune system, invisible, lung cancer, lymphoma, Menin, protein
January 16, 2023
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The best Band-Aids could be sprouting from your scalp, a new study suggests. British researchers say hair follicles may have wound-healing properties, with the potential to avoid lifelong scars that can be damaging to one’s confidence.
The study out of Imperial College London reports that scars treated with hair follicle transplants began to act similarly to uninjured skin, generating new cells, blood vessels, gene expression, and even restoring itself through collagen.
“Around 100 million people per year acquire scars in high-income countries alone, primarily as a result of surgeries. The global incidence of scars is much higher and includes extensive scarring formed after burn and traumatic injuries. Our work opens new avenues for treating scars and could even change our approach to preventing them,” says Dr Francisco Jiménez, lead hair transplant surgeon at the Mediteknia Clinic and Associate Research Professor at University Fernando Pessoa Canarias, in Gran Canaria, Spain, in a statement.
Scar tissue in the skin lacks hair, sweat glands, blood vessels and nerves, which are all needed for proper regulation of body temperature, as well as pain and overall sensory detection. Scarring can also disrupt movement ability, thus inducing stress and discomfort for someone.
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| Tags: : Blood vessels, cell, cells, collagen, follicules, gene expression, hair, hair transplants, Imperial College London, Mediteknia Clinic, nerves, normotrophic scars, pain, scalp, scars, sensory detection, skin, sweat glands, temperature, transplants, University Fernando Pessoa Canarias, wounds
January 13, 2023
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As of January 10, 2022, over 13 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered — including hundreds of millions of mRNA vaccines by companies like Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. Following the surge in mRNA vaccine research for COVID-19, researchers are now seeking to apply their experience to cancer vaccines. Recently, BioNTech announced a strategic partnership with the government of the United Kingdom to provide up to 10,000 patients with personalized mRNA cancer immunotherapies by 2030.
“Our goal is to accelerate the development of immunotherapies and vaccines using technologies we have been researching for over 20 years,” says Prof. Ugur Sahin, CEO and cofounder of BioNTech, in a press release.
“The collaboration will cover various cancer types and infectious diseases affecting collectively hundreds of millions of people worldwide. If successful, this collaboration has the potential to improve outcomes for patients and provide early access to our suite of cancer immunotherapies as well as to innovative vaccines against infectious diseases – in the U.K. and worldwide,” he adds.
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| Tags: BionTech, cancer immunotherapies, cancer vaccine, COVID-19, Moderna, mRNA vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech
January 12, 2023
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Retinal cells grown from stem cells can reach out and connect with neighbors, according to a new study, completing a “handshake” that may show the cells are ready for trials in humans with degenerative eye disorders.
Over a decade ago, researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison developed a way to grow organized clusters of cells, called organoids, that resemble the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. They coaxed human skin cells reprogrammed to act as stem cells to develop into layers of several types of retinal cells that sense light and ultimately transmit what we see to the brain.
Proof of synapses connecting pairs of retinal cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells comes from the red coloring of infection by a modified rabies virus passed from one cell with a yellow nucleus across the synapse to a cell that glows only red
“We wanted to use the cells from those organoids as replacement parts for the same types of cells that have been lost in the course of retinal diseases,” says David Gamm, the UW–Madison ophthalmology professor and director of the McPherson Eye Research Institute whose lab developed the organoids. “But after being grown in a laboratory dish for months as compact clusters, the question remained — will the cells behave appropriately after we tease them apart? Because that is key to introducing them into a patient’s eye.”
During 2022, Gamm and UW–Madison collaborators published studies showing that dish-grown retinal cells called photoreceptors respond like those in a healthy retina to different wavelengths and intensities of light, and that once they are separated from adjacent cells in their organoid, they can reach out toward new neighbors with characteristic biological cords called axons. “The last piece of the puzzle was to see if these cords had the ability to plug into, or shake hands with, other retinal cell types in order to communicate,” says Gamm, whose new results on successful connections between the cells was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: https://news.wisc.edu/
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| Tags: axons, degenerative eye diseases, glaucoma, neurons, photoreceptors, retina, Retinal cells, retinal organoid, stem cells, synapses, University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW-Madison
January 11, 2023
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According to The Economist, improved algorithms, powerful computers, and an increase in digitized data have fueled a revolution in machine learning, with new techniques in the 2010s resulting in "rapid improvements in tasks" including manipulating language. Software models are trained to learn by using thousands or millions of examples in a "structure ... loosely based on the neural architecture of the brain". One architecture used in natural language processing (NLP) is a neural network based on a deep learning model that was first introduced in 2017—the Transformer. GPT-n models are based on this Transformer-based deep learning neural network architecture. There are a number of NLP systems capable of processing, mining, organizing, connecting and contrasting textual input, as well as correctly answering questions.
On June 11, 2018, OpenAI researchers and engineers posted their original paper on generative models—language models—artificial intelligence systems—that could be pre-trained with an enormous and diverse corpus of text via datasets, in a process they called generative pre-training (GP). The authors described how language understanding performances in natural language processing (NLP) were improved in GPT-n through a process of "generative pre-training of a language model on a diverse corpus of unlabeled text, followed by discriminative fine-tuning on each specific task." This eliminated the need for human supervision and for time-intensive hand-labeling.
In February 2020, Microsoft introduced its Turing Natural Language Generation (T-NLG), which was claimed to be the "largest language model ever published at 17 billion parameters." It performed better than any other language model at a variety of tasks which included summarizing texts and answering questions.
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| Tags: algorithms, arXiv, brain, Common Crawl, contrasting textual input, data, deep learning, generative models, generative pre-training, Google Search Engine, GP, GPT-3, machine-learning, Microsoft, Natural Language Processing, neural architecture, neural network, NLP, OpenAI, T-NLG, Turing Natural Language Generation, WebText2
January 10, 2023
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In November 2022, Swiss scientists opened an eagerly awaited package from rural Ethiopia. It was full of shit. For two months, public health researcher Abdifatah Muhummed had been collecting stool samples from children in a remote, pastoralist community in Ethiopia’s Somali Region, as part of a global effort to catalog and preserve the diversity of human gut bacteria. He split each sample into four tubes, froze them at –80 degrees Celsius, and shipped two of them to Europe.
Trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes live in the digestive tract. Many of them are beneficial to human health—influencing our metabolism and immune system, for example. But their diversity is under threat from industrialization, urbanization, and environmental changes. When Muhummed analyzed some of the samples he’d collected—culturing them in petri dishes and adding a dye to make them visible under a microscope—he was astounded to find signs of antibiotic resistance, even in samples taken from children who had never been exposed to modern antibiotics.
That’s one of the reasons scientists want to create a global biobank—a Noah’s ark of microbes, so to speak—and permanently store samples from around the world, before it’s too late. “Of course, it is difficult to concretely say what we are losing,” says microbiologist Adrian Egli, who is based in Zurich and is part of the launch team for the Microbiota Vault project.
Source: https://www.microbiotavault.org/
AND
https://www.wired.co.uk/
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| Tags: bacteria, digestive tract, diversity, fungi, global biobank, GUT, immune system, mass extinction, Microbiota Vault project, microbus, shit, stool
January 9, 2023
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Because we cannot currently predict which subtype of the influenza virus will cause the next pandemic, researchers have made various attempts to produce a “universal” vaccine that could protect people from a wide swathe of subtypes.
Although most of these efforts have focused on a limited set of antigens that are shared by many subtypes, an alternate approach has been to generate a multivalent vaccine that would encode all known subtypes. Arevalo et al. took advantage of recent advances in nucleic acid–based vaccine platforms to develop a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA–lipid nanoparticle vaccine encoding hemagglutinin antigens from all 20 known influenza A and B virus subtypes (see the Perspective by Kelvin and Falzarano). This vaccine elicited high levels of cross-reactive and subtype-specific antibodies in both mice and ferrets, which protected these animals from matched and mismatched influenza virus strains.
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January 6, 2023
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Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have found a way to fight cancer with cancer. The team genetically engineered cancer cells to release anti-cancer drugs at the site of established tumors, as well as stimulating the immune system against the disease. Tests in mice proved promising as both a therapy and a preventative vaccine.
Cancer vaccines are an emerging area of research, where patients are often administered inactive tumor cells or proteins expressed at high levels by cancer cells. This trains the immune system to recognize existing tumors and mount an assault on them, and can prevent the spread or appearance of new tumors. For the new study, the BWH team took a new approach, using living tumor cells instead.
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| Tags: Brigham and Women's Hospital, BWH, cancer, cancer vaccines, CRISPR, drugs, Glioblastoma, immune system, inactive tumor cells, living tumor cells, metastatic cancer, proteins, therapeutic tumor cells, ThTC, tumors, vaccine
January 5, 2023
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According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about one in five adults have a health condition that might be related to having previously been infected with COVID-19. In addition to cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, blood clots and vascular issues, kidney failure, and musculoskeletal conditions, these individuals may also experience changes in their neurological and mental health conditions.
Researchers shared how their use of a special type of MRI revealed brain changes in patients up to 6 months after they have recovered from COVID-19 at the 2022 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting.
For their study, a team led by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology used susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) to analyze the effects that COVID-19 has on the brain. Magnetic susceptibility “denotes how much certain materials, such as blood, iron and calcium, will become magnetized in an applied magnetic field,” the authors noted in an RSNA statement summarizing the findings. “This ability aids in the detection and monitoring of a host of neurologic conditions including microbleeds, vascular malformations, brain tumors, and stroke.”
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| Tags: brain, CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19, Indian Institute of Technology, long COVID, MRI, Radiological Society of North America, RSNA, susceptibility-weighted imaging, SWI
January 4, 2023
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New research in the journal Nature Aging takes a page from the field of renewable energy and shows that genetically engineered mitochondria can convert light energy into chemical energy that cells can use, ultimately extending the life of the roundworm C. elegans. While the prospect of sunlight-charged cells in humans is more science fiction than science, the findings shed light on important mechanisms in the aging process.
Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) has been the source of major discoveries in molecular and cell biology
“We know that mitochondrial dysfunction is a consequence of aging,” said Andrew Wojtovich, Ph.D., associate professor of Pharmacology & Physiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center and senior author of the study. “This study found that simply boosting metabolism using light-powered mitochondria gave laboratory worms longer, healthier lives. These findings and new research tools will enable us to further study mitochondria and identify new ways to treat age-related diseases and age healthier.”
Mitochondria are organelles found in most cells in the body. Often referred to as cellular power plants, mitochondria use glucose to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the compound that provides energy for key functions in the cell, such as muscle contraction and the electrical impulses that help nerve cells communicate with each other.
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| Tags: adenosine triphosphate, aging, ATP, cells, cellular power plants, genetically engineered, light energy, membrane, membrane potential, mitochondria, muscle contraction, nerve cells, organelles, protons, renewable energy, solar panels, University of Rochester Medical Center
January 3, 2023
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Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the need for prosthetic hands has increased sharply. In Netherlands TU Delft researcher Gerwin Smit has designed a prosthetic hand that can be made through a combination of 3-D printing and laser-cutting, which means that they be produced easily and relatively cheaply in countries that have little money to spend on such things.
These prosthetic hands are already being used in India and now, the Indian technology company Vispala has donated 350 of Smit’s 3D-printed prosthetic hands to war victims in Ukraine, sponsored by the American IT-company, Cisco. Biomechanical engineer Gerwin Smit is the designer of the so-called ‘Hundred Dollar Hand’ which is easy and inexpensive to produce using a combination of 3-D printing and laser-cutting. 80% of people needing a prosthetic hand live in countries which have little money for such things so Smit’s robust and artificial hand offers a robust and reliable solution. Last year, the social enterprise, Vispala made the Hundred Dollar Hand design ready for production and already, several hundred have been made and distributed around India since 2021.
Meanwhile, Gerwin Smit and his team are monitoring the use of these prosthetic hands and are gathering feedback to see how the design can be made even better.
Source: https://www.tudelft.nl/
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| Tags: 3-D-printing, Cisco, iNDIA, laser-cutting, prosthetic hand, TU Delft, Ukraine, Vispala
January 2, 2023
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Shenzhen SpinQ Technology Co., Ltd. has come out with three models
The year 2022 has witnessed many momentous moments: multiple moon missions, fusion power, JWST’s new but ancient galaxies, ChatGPT, quantum leaps in quantum computing etc. Yet, what 2022 might one day end up being largely remembered for, is as the year when the first affordable retail quantum computer went on sale.
Shenzhen SpinQ Technology Co., Ltd. has come out with three models – Gemini, Gemini Mini and Triangulum that are ‘portable’ quantum computer models anyone can buy. While the first two are “2 qubits desktop NMR quantum computer”, Triangulum is a “3 qubits desktop NMR quantum computer”. Though the Chinese company had begun shipping their quantum computers earlier and the first ‘real’ quantum computer – IBM’s Quantum System One was installed in Germany on June 15 2021, what is unique about these models is weight and cost: at 14 kilograms and $5,000 Gemini Mini is the lightest and most affordable quantum computer in a market where the average low price is still a few hundred thousand with the high-end models selling for millions of dollars.
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| Tags: ChatGPT, fusion power, Gemini, Gemini Mini, IBM, QUANTUM COMPUTER, quantum computing, Quantum System One, qubit carrier, qubits, Shenzhen SpinQ Technology Co., spin, Triangulum
December 30, 2022
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BioNtech (22UAy.DE) has dosed the first patient with its BNT163 herpes vaccine candidate designed to prevent genital lesions as part of a first-in-human Phase 1 clinical research study, the German vaccine maker said on Wednesday.
The vaccine candidate is meant to prevent HSV-2, the herpes simplex virus that causes genital herpes, and potentially HSV-1, which causes oral herpes and can lead to genital herpes.
It is the first result of the research collaboration established in 2018 between the University of Pennsylvania and BioNtech aimed at developing novel mRNA vaccine candidates for the prevention and treatment of various infectious diseases.
The World Health Organization estimates the number of people aged 15-49 suffering from HSV-2 infection at around 491 million.
BioNTech expects to enrol 100 people between ages 18 and 55 for its Phase 1 trial of the drug, the firm added.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/
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| Tags: BionTech, BNT163 herpes vaccine, genital herpes, herpes virus, HSV-1, HSV-2, mRNA vaccine, oral herpes, University of Pennsylvania, World Health Organization
December 29, 2022
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MIT engineers have developed ultralight fabric solar cells that can quickly and easily turn any surface into a power source.
These durable, flexible solar cells, which are much thinner than a human hair, are glued to a strong, lightweight fabric, making them easy to install on a fixed surface. They can provide energy on the go as a wearable power fabric or be transported and rapidly deployed in remote locations for assistance in emergencies. They are one-hundredth the weight of conventional solar panels, generate 18 times more power-per-kilogram, and are made from semiconducting inks using printing processes that can be scaled in the future to large-area manufacturing.
Because they are so thin and lightweight, these solar cells can be laminated onto many different surfaces. For instance, they could be integrated onto the sails of a boat to provide power while at sea, adhered onto tents and tarps that are deployed in disaster recovery operations, or applied onto the wings of drones to extend their flying range. This lightweight solar technology can be easily integrated into built environments with minimal installation needs.
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| Tags: drone, e Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Laboratory, energy, MIT, MIT.nano, ONE Lab, sail, semiconducting inks, solar cell
December 28, 2022
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People in lab coats may soon be replacing farm animals. Upside Foods has developed a version of “slaughter-free,” lab-grown meat, which can be made without a single real animal. And now the FDA has approved this chickenless chicken for consumer consumption, meaning we may soon see it in restaurants and grocery stores.
Cultivating meat in a lab is a high-tech process, which involves taking cell samples from an animal and then nurturing them in a “cultivator,” where they grow and multiply into tissue.
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| Tags: cell samples, chickenless chicken, FDA, Good Food Institute, Lab-grown Meat, seafood, slaughter-free, tissue, Upside Foods
December 27, 2022
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To the general public, it may sound like something out of a science fiction movie: diagnosing serious diseases such as cancer by listening to someone’s voice. But in fact, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are now investigating whether changes in a person’s voice could serve as a new biomarker in clinical care for detecting illnesses early.
The project, called Voice as a Biomarker of Health, will include 12 research institutions and is being funded by the Bridge to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI) program out of the NIH Common Fund. The project will use machine learning to build a database of vocal biomarkers, and then use the science of acoustic analysis to identify changes—such as pitch, amplitude, cadence, and words per minute—that could become a low-cost diagnostic tool, alongside other clinical tests.
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| Tags: AI, amplitude, biomarker, Bridge to Artificial Intelligence, Bridge2AI, cadence, cancer, database, diagnostic, laryngeal cancer, machine-learning, National Institutes of Health, NIH, pitch, University of South Florida, USF, voice, Voice as a Biomarker of Health, words
December 26, 2022
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In a bit of “reverse engineering” research using brain tissues from five people who died with Alzheimer’s disease, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they discovered that a special sugar molecule could play a key role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. If further research confirms the finding, the molecule, known as a glycan, could serve as a new target for early diagnostic tests, treatments and perhaps prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, say the researchers. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia in the United States. Affecting an estimated 5.8 million Americans, the progressive disorder occurs when nerve cells in the brain die due to the buildup of harmful forms of proteins called amyloid and tau.
Cleaning up the disease-causing forms of amyloid and tau is the job of the brain’s immune cells, called microglia. Earlier studies found that when cleanup is impaired, Alzheimer’s disease is more likely to occur. In some people, this is caused by an overabundance of a receptor on the microglia cells, called CD33.
“Receptors are not active on their own. Something needs to connect with them to block microglia from cleaning up these toxic proteins in the brain", says Ronald Schnaar, Professor of Pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the laboratory that led the study. Past studies by the researchers showed that for CD33, these “connector” molecules are special sugars. Known to scientists as glycans, these molecules are ferried around the cell by specialized proteins that help them find their appropriate receptors. The protein-glycan combination is called a glycoprotein.
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| Tags: Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid, brain tissues, CD33, dementia, glycan, glycoprotein., immune cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine, microglia, molecule, nerve cells, proteins, receptors, RPTP zeta S3L, sialylated keratan sulfate, sugar, tau
December 23, 2022
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Scientists used patient stem cells and 3D bioprinting to produce eye tissue that will advance understanding of the mechanisms of blinding diseases. The research team from the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, printed a combination of cells that form the outer blood-retina barrier—eye tissue that supports the retina’s light-sensing photoreceptors.
The outer blood-retina barrier is the interface of the retina and the choroid, including Bruch’s membrane and the choriocapillaris
The technique provides a theoretically unlimited supply of patient-derived tissue to study degenerative retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
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| Tags: 3D bioprinting, age-related macular degeneration, AMD, blinding diseases, Bruch’s membrane, cell, choriocapillaris, dedegenerative retinal diseases, eye tissue, macular degeneration, National Eye Institute, NEI, outer blood-retina barrier, retinal pigment epithelium, stem cells, tissue, vision loss
December 22, 2022
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As any weekend warrior understands, cartilage injuries to joints such as knees, shoulders, and hips can prove extremely painful and debilitating. In addition, conditions that cause cartilage degeneration, like arthritis and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ), affect 350 million people in the world and cost the US public health system more than $303 billion every year. Patients suffering from these conditions experience increased pain and discomfort over time.
However, an exciting study led by faculty at The Forsyth Institute suggests new strategies for making cartilage cells with huge implications in regenerative medicine for future cartilage injuries and degeneration treatments. In a paper, entitled “GATA3 mediates nonclassical β-catenin signaling in skeletal cell fate determination and ectopic chondrogenesis,” co-first authors Takamitsu Maruyama and Daigaku Hasegawa, and senior author Wei Hsu, describe two breakthrough discoveries, including a new understanding of a multifaced protein called β-catenin. Dr. Hsu is a senior scientist at the Forsyth Insitute and a Professor of Developmental Biology at Harvard University. He is also an affiliate faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
“The goal of this study,” said Dr. Maruyama of Forsyth, “was to figure out how to regenerate cartilage. We wanted to determine how to control cell fate, to cause the somatic cell to become cartilage instead of bone.”
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| Tags: arthritis, bone, cartilage, cartilage degeneration, cells, Forsyth Insitute, Harvard University, hips, injuries, joints, knees, multifaced protein, pain, regenerative medicine, shoulders, temporomandibular joint disorder, TMJ, Wnt, β-catenin
December 21, 2022
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To help surgeons with the exacting task of finding and removing lung cancer cells, and sparing healthy tissue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a fluorescent imaging agent that "lights up" lung cancer cells for easier detection. The prescription medication, Cytalux, or pafolacianine, was first approved by the FDA in November 2021 to help detect ovarian cancer during surgery. It received permission for the additional use on Friday.
Purdue ‘Light Up’ Cancer Technology Earns FDA Approval
Now, researchers cite its potential to improve the outcomes of thousands of lung cancer patients. Cytalux, which is given as an intravenous injection to adults prior to surgery, is designed to improve the ability to locate cancerous lung tissue that is normally difficult to detect during surgery, the FDA said. In a study of safety and effectiveness, of the 110 non-small cell lung cancer patients who received a dose of Cytalux and were evaluated under both normal light and fluorescent light during surgery. The FDA said 24% had at least one cancerous lesion detected that was not observed by standard visual inspection or by touch.
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| Tags: cells, Cytalux, FDA, fluorescent, folate, lung cancer, On Target Laboratories, ovarian cancer, pafolacianine, Purdue University, tissue, vomiting
December 20, 2022
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A team of engineers at the University of California San Diego has developed an electronic patch that can monitor biomolecules in deep tissues, including hemoglobin. This gives medical professionals unprecedented access to crucial information that could help spot life-threatening conditions such as malignant tumors, organ dysfunction, cerebral or gut hemorrhages and more.
A photoacoustic sensor could help clinicians diagnose tumors, organ malfunctions and more
“The amount and location of hemoglobin in the body provide critical information about blood perfusion or accumulation in specific locations. Our device shows great potential in close monitoring of high-risk groups, enabling timely interventions at urgent moments,” said Sheng Xu, a professor of nanoengineering at UC San Diego and corresponding author of the study.
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| Tags: biomolecules, blood, brain, cerebral hemorrhages, deep tissues, electronic patch, gut hemorrhages, hemoglobin, hemorrhage, Low blood perfusion, magnetic resonance imaging, malignant tumors, monitoring, MRI, organ dysfunction, sensor, UC San Diego, University of California San Diego, X-ray-computed tomography
December 19, 2022
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Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as Keytruda and Opdivo work by unleashing the immune system’s T cells to attack tumor cells. Their introduction a decade ago marked a major advance in cancer therapy, but only 10% to 30% of treated patients experience long-term improvement. In a paper published online today in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI), scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine describe findings that could bolster the effectiveness of immune-checkpoint therapy. Rather than rally T cells against cancer, the Einstein research team used different human immune cells known as natural killer (NK) cells—with dramatic results.
“We believe the novel immunotherapy we’ve developed has great potential to move into clinical trials involving various types of cancer,” said study leader Xingxing Zang, M.Med., Ph.D., Professor of microbiology at Einstein and a member of the Cancer Therapeutics Program of the Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center.
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| Tags: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, cancer, cancer-cell protein, Einstein, Immune checkpoint inhibitors, immune system, immune-checkpoint therapy, Keytruda, KIR2DL5, monoclonal antibodies, natural killer, NK, NK cells, Opdivo, proteins, PVR, T-cells, TIGIT, tissue, tumor cells
December 16, 2022
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Teaching the body’s immune cells to recognize and fight cancer is one of the holy grails in medicine. Over the past two decades, researchers have developed new immunotherapy drugs that stimulate a patient’s immune cells to significantly shrink or even eliminate tumors. These treatments often focus on increasing the cancer-killing ability of cytotoxic T cells. However, these treatments appear to only work for the small group of patients who already have T cells within their tumors. One 2019 study estimated that under 13% of cancer patients responded to immunotherapy.
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| Tags: cancer, CAR-T cells, chimeric antigen receptor T cells, cytotoxic T cells, immune cells, immunotherapy drugs, nature, protein, receptor, San Francisco, solid tumors, synNotch, synthetic biology, synthetic Notch receptor, tumors, University of California
December 15, 2022
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Israeli researchers have built an artificial intelligence tool that analyzes ECG tests and predicts heart failure with high accuracy weeks before it happens.The new technology is for sufferers of myositis — muscle inflammation — which elevates the risk of heart failure. The physician who led the research, Dr. Shahar Shelly of Rambam Healthcare Campus, told The Times of Israel that it is the first AI tool built especially for this population. It analyzes heart patterns that are unique to them, and can bring about earlier detection than is currently possible, he said.
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| Tags: AI, algorithm, Artificial Intelligence, ECG test, heart failure, Mayo Clinic Medical Center, muscle inflammation, myositis, patterns, Rambam Healthcare Campus
December 14, 2022
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For the first time ever, scientists have achieved a net energy gain in fusion tests. According to three people with knowledge of preliminary results from a recent experiment, US government scientists have made a breakthrough in the pursuit of limitless, zero-carbon power by achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time.
The federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, had achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks, the people said. Fusion reactions emit no carbon, produce no long-lived radioactive waste and a small cup of the hydrogen fuel could theoretically power a house for hundreds of years.
The fusion reaction at the US government facility produced about 2.5 megajoules of energy, which was about 120 per cent of the 2.1 megajoules of energy in the lasers, the people with knowledge of the results said, adding that the data was still being analyzed.
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| Tags: clean power, fusion ignition, hydrogen plasma, inertial confinement fusion, laser, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, LLNL, National Ignition Facility, National Nuclear Security Administration, net-zero carbon economy, NIF, NNSA, pellet, zero-carbon power
December 13, 2022
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New data from an ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial has revealed an experimental immunotherapy led to successful response rates in 73% of patients suffering from multiple myeloma, a deadly form of blood cancer. Based on this promising data, an application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been filed to bring the drug to market.
The technology has been in development for decades but it has only been in the last few years that bispecific antibodies have finally reached clinical uses. There are currently three FDA-approved bispecfiic antibody therapies on the market (primarily targeting cancers), and more than 100 prospective antibodies in clinical trials (aimed at everything from Alzheimer's to diabetes).
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| Tags: Alzheimer's, antigens, bispecific antibodies, blood cancer, cancerous plasma cells, cancers, CD3, diabetes, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, GPRC5D, immune T cell, immunotherapy, Johnson & Johnson, monoclonal antibodie, multiple myeloma, myeloma, receptor, talquetamab
December 12, 2022
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A highly efficient LED that is deadly to microbes and viruses but safe for people has been engineered in Japan by three RIKEN physicists. It could one day help countries emerge from the shadows of pandemics by killing pathogens in rooms full of people.
Most LEDs emit visible light, but RIKEN physicists have created an LED that emits in a narrow region in the far ultraviolet that is safe for humans but deadly for viruses and bacteria.
Ultraviolet germicidal lamps are extremely effective at exterminating bacteria and viruses, and they are routinely used in hospitals to sterilize surfaces and medical instruments.
Such lamps can be made with LEDs, making them energy efficient. But these LEDs use ultraviolet light in a range that damages DNA and thus cannot be used around people. The hunt is on to develop efficient LEDs that shine light within a narrow band of far-ultraviolet light that appears to be both good at disinfecting and safe for people.
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| Tags: aluminum, bacteria, COVID-19 pandemic, DNA, Far-ultraviolet LED, gallium, layer, magnesium, microbes, nitrogen, output power, pandemics, RIKEN, RIKEN Quantum Optodevice Laboratory, silicon, Ultraviolet germicidal lamps, ultraviolet light., viruses
December 9, 2022
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Rice University researchers have engineered a key light-activated nanomaterial for the hydrogen economy. Using only inexpensive raw materials, a team from Rice’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics, Syzygy Plasmonics Inc. and Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment created a scalable catalyst that needs only the power of light to convert ammonia into clean-burning hydrogen fuel.
The research follows government and industry investment to create infrastructure and markets for carbon-free liquid ammonia fuel that will not contribute to greenhouse warming. Liquid ammonia is easy to transport and packs a lot of energy, with one nitrogen and three hydrogen atoms per molecule. The new catalyst breaks those molecules into hydrogen gas, a clean-burning fuel, and nitrogen gas, the largest component of Earth’s atmosphere. And unlike traditional catalysts, it doesn’t require heat. Instead, it harvests energy from light, either sunlight or energy-stingy LEDs.
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| Tags: ammonia, carbon-free liquid ammonia fuel, clean-burning fuel, greenhouse warming, hydrogen, LED PHOTONS, light, molecule, nanotechnology, nitrogen, Princeton University, Rice University, Syzygy Plasmonics Inc
December 8, 2022
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Engineers at the University of Minnesota have developed a new system that can move objects without making physical contact. The technique involves ultrasound waves acting on specialized surfaces to push or even pull objects in different directions, which could help in manufacturing and robotics.
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| Tags: light, metamaterial physics, sound, ultrasound, University of Minnesota, waves
December 6, 2022
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Researchers have developed a unique batteryless and wireless device that can detect within no time coronavirus in the air, if your surroundings contain Covid-19 particles or droplets the moment they enter the vicinity.
The device, which requires no batteries, employs a magnetostrictive clad plate composed of iron, cobalt and nickel, generating power via alternative magnetisation caused by vibration.
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| Tags: alternative magnetisation, batteries, batteryless, CD13 protein, cells, cobalt, coronavirus, COVID, droplets, Fe-Co/Ni, iron, magnetostrictive clad plate, nickel, receptor protein, Tohoku University, vibration, vibration resonance frequency, wireless
December 5, 2022
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The Tesla Semi could make a great electric motorhome based on the specs Tesla released this week and what these great electric truck offerings look like as a motorhome. There is just something about the idea of an all-electric, solar-powered mobile home that is so appealing to a lot of people.
During the day, you drive with zero emissions and can power your life from the same battery pack that powers you. At night, you can charge to do it again the next day. With solar energy, you can also take the whole experience off the grid.
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| Tags: electric truck, motor home, solar energy, solar-powered mobile home, Tesla Semi
December 2, 2022
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Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp expects to start inserting its wireless brain chip into human patients within six months, the US-based company said at an event yesterday.
Neuralink is developing a brain chip implant that it says could enable disabled patients to move and communicate again, which it demonstrated with a video of a monkey typing on a keyboard to order snacks using ‘telepathic typing’ with the chip communicating messages from its brain to a computer. It needs approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it can start clinical trials on people.
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| Tags: brain, brain chip implant, chip, computer, Elon Musk, FDA, Food and Drug Administrat, Neuralink, telepathic typing, wireless brain chip
December 1, 2022
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Rolls-Royce and easyJet today confirmed they have set a new aviation milestone with the world’s first run of a modern aero engine on hydrogen.
The ground test was conducted on an early concept demonstrator using green hydrogen created by wind and tidal power. It marks a major step towards proving that hydrogen could be a zero carbon aviation fuel of the future and is a key proof point in the decarbonisation strategies of both Rolls-Royce and easyJet. Both companies have set out to prove that hydrogen can safely and efficiently deliver power for civil aero engines and are already planning a second set of tests, with a longer-term ambition to carry out flight tests.
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| Tags: aero engine, aviation fuel, easyJet, green hydrogen, hydrogen, hydrogen-powered jet, Pearl 15, Rolls-Royce, tidal power, wind power, zero carbon
November 30, 2022
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An experimental therapeutic cancer vaccine induced two distinct and desirable immune system responses that led to significant tumor regression in mice. This is according to a new research study published in the journal Cell, reported by investigators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
According to the research findings, intravenous (IV) administration of the vaccine boosted the number of cytotoxic T cells capable of infiltrating and attacking tumor cells and engaged the innate immune system by inducing type I interferon. The innate immune response modified the tumor microenvironment, counteracting suppressive forces that otherwise would tamp down T-cell action. Modification of the tumor microenvironment was not found in mice that received the vaccine via subcutaneous administration (i.e. a needle injection into the skin).
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| Tags: cancer, cells, cytotoxic T cells, HPV, immune system, immunotherapeutic vaccines, IV, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, NIAID, NIH, papillomavirus, SNAPvax, tumor, type I interferon, Vaccine Research Center, Vaccitech North America, vax-innate, VRC
November 29, 2022
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A large study led by Lund University in Sweden has shown that people with Alzheimer's disease can now be identified before they experience any symptoms. It is now also possible to predict who will deteriorate within the next few years. The study is published in Nature Medicine, and is very timely in light of the recent development of new drugs for Alzheimer's disease.
It has long been known that there are two proteins linked to Alzheimer’s – beta-amyloid, which forms plaques in the brain, and tau, which at a later stage accumulates inside brain cells. Elevated levels of these proteins in combination with cognitive impairment have previously formed the basis for diagnosing Alzheimer's.
“Changes occur in the brain between ten and twenty years before the patient experiences any clear symptoms, and it is only when tau begins to spread that the nerve cells die and the person in question experiences the first cognitive problems. This is why Alzheimer's is so difficult to diagnose in its early stages”, explains Oskar Hansson, senior physician in neurology at Skåne University Hospital and professor at Lund University.
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| Tags: Alzheimer's, Amsterdam University Medical Center, brain, cells, lecanemab, Lund University, PET scans, plaques, proteins, Skåne University Hospital, tau
November 28, 2022
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With the help of an AI, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have succeeded in designing synthetic DNA that controls the cells’ protein production. The technology can contribute to the development and production of vaccines, drugs for severe diseases, as well as alternative food proteins much faster and at significantly lower costs than today.
How our genes are expressed is a process that is fundamental to the functionality of cells in all living organisms. Simply put, the genetic code in DNA is transcribed to the molecule messenger RNA (mRNA), which tells the cell’s factory which protein to produce and in which quantities.
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| Tags: AI, cancer, cell, cell's protein, cell’s factory, Chalmers University of Technology, COVID-19, DNA, drugs, food proteins, gene expression, genes, genetic code, immune system, mRNA, mRNA vaccine, protein, protein-based drugs, RNA, severe diseases, synthetic DNA, vaccines, virus
November 25, 2022
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Millions of people dealing with diseases and suppressed immune systems are often forced to deal with chronic wounds—often minor injuries that nonetheless take much longer to heal because of compromised health. In addition to vastly varying degrees of recovery, issues like diabetic ulcers are also incredibly expensive, with treatment for a single incident costing as much as $50,000. Overall, chronic injuries cost Americans $25 billion a year, but a remarkable new device could soon offer a much more effective and cost-efficient way to not only help patients heal, but do so better than ever before.
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| Tags: biosensors, blood flow, chronic wounds, data, diabetic ulcers, electrical stimulator, galvanotaxis, hydrogel, immune systems, radio antenna, scar, skin-like polymer, smart bandage, smart phone program, Stanford University, tissue
November 24, 2022
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Scientists in Israel have created the first nano-robot antibodies designed to fight cancer. The first human trial for the new nano-robots will start soon, and it will determine just how effective the antibodies are. What is special about these particular antibodies, too, is that they are programmed to decide whether cells surrounding tumors are “bad” or “good.”
The trial is currently underway in Australia and if it goes according to plan, the nano-robot antibodies will be able to fight cells around tumors that can help the tumor while also boosting the capability of the cells inhibiting the growth of the cancerous cells. The antibodies were invented by Professor Yanay Ofran and are based on human and animal antibodies.
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| Tags: ancer-killing viruses, cancer, cancerous cells, nano-robot antibodies, programmability
November 23, 2022
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UK has successfully test-fired its first high-powered, long-range laser weapon — putting its military one step closer to dramatically improving its defense against incoming threats.
“[This] is the culmination of five years worth of effort … To get to a position where we’ve proven that the technology is effective is fantastically exciting,” said Ben Maddison, technical partner at the UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
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| Tags: ammunition, beam, Dstl, kinetic energy, laser weapon, liight, speed of light
November 22, 2022
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Researchers at The University of Toledo have developed an experimental vaccine that shows significant promise in preventing rheumatoid arthritis, a painful autoimmune disease that cannot currently be cured. The findings, detailed in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represent a major breakthrough in the study of rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune diseases in general.
One of the most common autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when the body’s immune system attacks and breaks down healthy tissue — most notably the lining of joints in the hands, wrists, ankles and knees. Some estimates suggest rheumatoid arthritis affects as much as 1% of the global population.
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| Tags: 14-3-3 zeta, aneurysms, arthritis, autoimmune disease, autoimmune diseases, bone, cytokine, gene-editing technology, immune pathologies, interleukin-17, protein, rheumatoid arthritis, University of Toledo, UToledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences, vaccine
November 21, 2022
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A University of Houston professor is reporting on a new type of solar energy harvesting system called thermophotovoltaics (STPV) that breaks the efficiency record of all existing technologies. And no less important, it clears the way to use solar power 24/7.
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| Tags: conversion efficiency, daylight, efficiency record, energy, Photovoltaic cells, solar energy, solar energy harvesting system, solar power, STPV, sunlight, thermodynamic limit, thermophotovoltaics, University of Houston
November 18, 2022
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A major milestone is currently underway in the realm of cultivated meat. Food scientists have spent decades of research and development crafting new meat to tackle the increasing demand for this produce, reduce environmental degradation, and support animal welfare (via CNN). Now, one company is swiftly on its way to producing some of the country's first cultured protein. Following its first pre-market consultation, the FDA has evaluated the safety of cultivated chicken created by Upside Foods and confirmed that there are no further questions at this time.
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| Tags: biopsy, bioreactor, cells, cultivated chicken, cultivated meat, cultured protein, FDA, micronutrients, Upside Foods
November 17, 2022
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Back pain is a common condition with numerous causes, including poor posture, overexertion, constant stress at work or at home, lack of exercise, and poor posture. For a considerable number of patients, the symptoms are chronic, meaning they last a long period or reoccur repeatedly. However, port and exercise therapy, when done properly, can provide alleviation.
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| Tags: andomized controlled trials, back, chronic back pain, Goethe University Frankfurt, pain, personal coaching, port, RCT
November 16, 2022
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The blood-brain barrier is an important aspect of the brain’s blood vessels that prevents poisons, viruses, and bacteria in blood from infiltrating the brain—but it inadvertently blocks most therapeutic substances. Nanoparticles, focused ultrasound, clever chemistry, and other innovative ideas are being tried to overcome the barrier and deliver treatments to the brain. Now, neurosurgeons at Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian are taking a more direct approach: a fully implantable pump that continuously delivers chemo through a tube inserted directly into the brain.
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| Tags: : Blood vessels, bacteria, blood brain barrier, brain cancer, cells, chemo, Columbia University, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Glioblastoma, implantable pump, nanoparticles, NewYork-Presbyterian, pump, ultrasound
November 15, 2022
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Germany company Sono Motors says it will bring a solar-powered electric vehicle to market in Europe in mid-2023. Sono has brought the car, called the Sion, on a tour throughout the U.S., in anticipation of its eventual domestic release. Priced at $25,000, the car is more affordable than most EVs on the U.S. market. It features 465 integrated solar half-cells throughout the exterior of the car — roof, doors, fenders, hood and all. The company estimates that solar power alone can fuel about 70 miles (113 km) of driving per week. For longer trips though, the Sion has a lithium iron phosphate battery with a 190-mile (306 km) range, made by Chinese electric vehicle and battery giant BYD.
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| Tags: battery, BYD, ev, lithium iron phosphate, Sion, solar, solar power, Sono Motors, Valmet Automotive
November 14, 2022
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Brain stimulators, a form of brain implant, can be a life changing treatment for those suffering from neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease.
And now, researchers claim in a study published last month in the journal Cells Report Physical Sciences that they've developed a way to charge the implants solely through breathing movements — potentially freeing them from the messy mechanics of charging an object inside a human body.
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| Tags: brain stimulator, chest wall, electric power, exhaling, Inhaling, supercapacitor, triboelectric nanogenerator, UConn, University of Connecticut
November 11, 2022
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A new study by scientists at the .NeuroRestore research center has identified the type of neuron that is activated and remodeled by spinal cord stimulation, allowing patients to stand up, walk and rebuild their muscles – thus improving their quality of life. This discovery, made in nine patients, marks a fundamental, clinical breakthrough.
In a multi-year research program coordinated by the two directors of .NeuroRestore – Grégoire Courtine, a neuroscience professor at EPFL, and Jocelyne Bloch, a neurosurgeon at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) – patients who had been paralyzed by a spinal cord injury and who underwent targeted epidural electrical stimulation of the area that controls leg movement were able to regain some motor function.
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| Tags: .NeuroRestore, CHUV, EPFL, epidural implants, Lausanne University Hospital, nerve fibers, neuron, spinal cord, Vsx2 gene
November 10, 2022
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A new report claims Apple’s new AR/VR headset has its exclusive manufacturing partner locked in, with production to begin in Q1 of 2023. Apple’s “extended reality” (XR) headset “will be exclusively assembled by Pegatron” according to Digitimes and that production could begin as early as January.
Continue Reading »
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| Tags: aluminum, Apple, AR, biometric security, extented reality, hand controls, iPhones, legs, Macs, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Quest Pro, Metaverse, Pegatron, scanning technology, VR Headset, XR
November 9, 2022
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An experimental vaccine against breast cancer safely generated a strong immune response to a key tumor protein, researchers from the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine in Seattle report in a paper published by the journal JAMA Oncology. The findings suggest the vaccine may be able to treat different types of breast cancer.
“Because this was not a randomized clinical trial, the results should be considered preliminary, but the findings are promising enough that the vaccine will now be evaluated in a larger, randomized clinical trial,” said lead author Dr. Mary “Nora” L. Disis, a UW professor of medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, and director of the Cancer Vaccine Institute.
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| Tags: breast cancer, Cancer Vaccine Institute, cell-killing, cells, cytotoxic, DNA vaccine, HER2, HER2-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, immune response, recurrence, remission, tumor protein, University of Washington, UW, vaccine
November 8, 2022
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Would you take a simple brain health test to learn about your risk of developing a brain disease if you could? According to the global brain health survey, 91% of those questioned would.
This question was asked to more than 27,500 people in the global brain health survey conducted by the Lifebrain project. The survey is led by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in collaboration with the University of Oslo.
The main findings were:
- 91% of respondents would definitely or probably take a simple test to learn about the risk of developing a brain disease.
- 86% would do so even if the disease could not be prevented or treated.
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| Tags: Alzheimer's, blood tests, brain disease, brain health test, brain scans, cognitive tests, gene tests, Huntington’s disease, Lifebrain, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, risk, test, University of Oslo
November 7, 2022
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A new mechanism that slows down and may even prevent the natural ageing of immune cells – one of the nine ‘hallmarks of ageing’* – has been identified by an international team led by UCL scientists.
Published in Nature Cell Biology, researchers say the discovery in-vitro (cells) and validated in mice was ‘unexpected’ and believe harnessing the mechanism could extend the life of the immune system, allowing people to live healthier and longer, and would also have clinical utility for diseases such as cancer and dementia.
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| Tags: ageing clock, antigen presenting cell, antigen-, APC, B cells, cancer, cells, chromosones, dementia, Dendritic cells, division, DNA sequence, extracellular vesicles, immune cell, immune system, macrophage, replication, T lymphocyte, T lymphocytes, T-cells, telomere, UCL, white blood
November 4, 2022
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Researchers have figured out how to deliver cancer-killing compounds (called enterotoxins) to tumors using bionic bacteria that are steered by a magnetic field. These “micro-robots” can hunt down and converge on a specific tumor, then shrink it by releasing the bacteria's own naturally produced anti-cancer chemicals. The results were recently published in the journal Science.
“Cancer is such a complex disease, it’s hard to combat it with one weapon,” says , a micro-roboticist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland and the first author of the new study.
She and her lab hope that these magnetic, bacteria-riding little robots will offer a precise and powerful addition to the cancer treatment toolbox.
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| Tags: aquatic bacteria, bacteria, bacterial cyborgs, bacterial proteins, bionic bacteria, chemotherapy, CRISPR, crystals, enterotoxins, ETH, genetically engineered bacteria, magnetic, magnetic field, magnetotactic bacteria, magnets, micro-robots, radiation, tumors
November 3, 2022
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A little over 15 years ago, scientists at Kyoto University in Japan made a remarkable discovery. When they added just four proteins to a skin cell and waited about two weeks, some of the cells underwent an unexpected and astounding transformation: they became young again. They turned into stem cells almost identical to the kind found in a days-old embryo, just beginning life’s journey.
At least in a petri dish, researchers using the procedure can take withered skin cells from a 101-year-old and rewind them so they act as if they’d never aged at all.
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| Tags: age reversal, aging, Altos Labs, cancer, cell, DNA, epigeniome, Kyoto University, proteins, Rejuvenation, rejuvenation programming
November 2, 2022
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Imagine a structure, 24 times longer than the Hoover Dam, stretching out into the sea. Its 9-kilometer wall curves towards the horizon before returning to rejoin the coast, creating a giant artificial lagoon. Under the water line, a channel fitted with 16 turbines connects the lagoon to the ocean. As the tide goes in and out, the lagoon fills and drains, spinning the turbines to generate more than 530 gigawatt-hours of clean electricity each year—enough to power 155,000 homes.
If this sounds like an engineering challenge too far, it’s not. The Swansea Bay tidal lagoon in South Wales might have taken as little as three years to start generating power if approved. Yet it was never built. The issue? Money. The UK government turned down the £1.3 billion ($1.46 billion) project in 2018 on the grounds that it was too expensive.
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| Tags: clean electricity, green energy, lagoon, LCOE, levelized cost of energy, maintenance, tidal power, turbiones, University of Plymouth
November 1, 2022
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Aging involves complicated plot twists and a large cast of characters: inflammation, stress, metabolism changes, and many others.
Now, a team of Salk Institute and UC San Diego scientists reveal another factor implicated in the aging process—a class of lipids called SGDGs (3-sulfogalactosyl diacylglycerols) that decline in the brain with age and may have anti-inflammatory effects.
The research, published in Nature Chemical Biology, helps unravel the molecular basis of brain aging, reveals new mechanisms underlying age-related neurological diseases, and offers future opportunities for therapeutic intervention.
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| Tags: 3-sulfogalactosyl diacylglycerols, aging, Anti-inflammatory, brain, fats, genes, lipidomics, lipids, metabolism, neurological diseases, proteins, Salk Institute, SGDGs, UC San Diego
October 31, 2022
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Biomedical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated the most effective treatment for pancreatic cancer ever recorded in mouse models. While most mouse trials consider simply halting growth a success, the new treatment completely eliminated tumors in 80 percent of mice across several model types, including those considered the most difficult to treat. 
The approach combines traditional chemotherapy drugs with a new method for irradiating the tumor. Rather than delivering radiation from an external beam that travels through healthy tissue, the treatment implants radioactive iodine-131 directly into the tumor within a gel-like depot that protects healthy tissue and is absorbed by the body after the radiation fades away.
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| Tags: beam, Cereius, chemotherapy, chemotherapy drugs, drug, Duke University, gel, irradiation, mutations, pancreatic cancer, radioactive iodine-131, titanium, tumors
October 28, 2022
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Scientists with the University of Chicago have discovered a way to create a material that can be made like a plastic, but conducts electricity more like a metal. The research, published Oct. 26 in Nature, shows how to make a kind of material in which the molecular fragments are jumbled and disordered, but can still conduct electricity extremely well.
This goes against all of the rules we know about for conductivity—to a scientist, it’s kind of seeing a car driving on water and still going 70 mph. But the finding could also be extraordinarily useful; if you want to invent something revolutionary, the process often first starts with discovering a completely new material.
“In principle, this opens up the design of a whole new class of materials that conduct electricity, are easy to shape, and are very robust in everyday conditions,” said John Anderson, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago and the senior author on the study. “Essentially, it suggests new possibilities for an extremely important technological group of materials,” said Jiaze Xie (PhD’22, now at Princeton), the first author on the paper.
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| Tags: aluminum, atoms, conductivity, conductors, copper, doping, gold, material, metal, moisture, plastic, Princeton, smartphone, solar panel, television, temperature, University of Chicago
October 27, 2022
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A topical gel that blocks the receptor for a metabolic byproduct called succinate treats gum disease by suppressing inflammation and changing the makeup of bacteria in the mouth, according to a new study led by researchers at NYU College of Dentistry and published in Cell Reports. The research, conducted in mice and using human cells and plaque samples, lays the groundwork for a non-invasive treatment for gum disease that people could apply to the gums at home to prevent or treat gum disease.
Gum disease (also known as periodontitis or periodontal disease) is one of the most prevalent inflammatory diseases, affecting nearly half of adults 30 and older. It is marked by three components: inflammation, an imbalance of unhealthy and healthy bacteria in the mouth, and destruction of the bones and structures that support the teeth. Uncontrolled gum disease can lead to painful and bleeding gums, difficulty chewing, and tooth loss.
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| Tags: bacteria, bone loss, dental plaque, gel, gum, human cells, inflammation, mouth, NYU College of Dentistry, NYU Dentistry, periodontitis, plaque, succinate
October 26, 2022
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We can add functional mouse hair follicles to body parts that scientists have successfully grown in the lab, outside the body. Using cells obtained from embryonic mice, for the first time researchers were able to produce hair follicle organoids – small, simple versions of an organ – that grew hair.
Moreover, they were able to influence the pigmentation of the hair; and, when the follicles were transplanted into living hairless mice, they continued to function across multiple hair growth cycles. This research, the team says, could help aid efforts to treat hair loss, as well as provide alternative models to animal testing and drug screening.
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| Tags: alopecia, baldness, cells, embryo, epidermis, hair, hair follicle organoids, hair follicles, hair loss, mesenchyme, morphogenesis, skin, stem cells, Yokohama National University
October 25, 2022
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Scientists have long wondered why cells lose their ability to repair themselves as they age. New research by scientists has uncovered two intriguing clues. DNA strands in human cells routinely break and repair themselves, Seluanov and Gorbunova from University of Rochester explained, but as cells age, the system for repair becomes less efficient and flaws in the process lead to a decline in the functionality of tissue and an increase in the incidence of tumors. Their team wanted to determine why this occurs, and establish whether the process could be slowed, or even reversed.
Seluanov and his colleagues found that the decline in a cell's ability to repair DNA during aging coincided with a global reduction in the levels of proteins involved in the repair process. Seluanov's group tried to reverse the age-related decline in DNA repair efficiency by restoring the proteins to their original levels and found only one protein, SIRT6, did the trick. Gorbunova said the results build on a paper by Haim Cohen, a staff scientist investigating aging at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and others published in the journal Nature this summer.
"That work showed that overexpressing the SIRT6 protein extended the lifespans of mice," said Gorbunova, "Our research looked at DNA repair and found a reason for the increased longevity, and that is SIRT6's role in promoting more efficient DNA repair."
The next step for Seluanov and his team is to study the factors that regulate SIRT6, in an effort to learn more about the early stages of the DNA repair process. Seluanov said that multiple groups are trying to develop drugs that activate SIRT6, and he hopes that this research will one day lead to therapies that help extend a person's lifespan and treat cancer.
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| Tags: aging, Bar-Ilan University, cells, DNA strands, protein, SIRT6, tissue, University of Rochester
October 24, 2022
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Brain tumors are among the most deadly and difficult-to-treat cancers. Glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive form, kills more than 10,000 Americans a year and has a median survival time of less than 15 months. For patients with brain tumors, treatment typically includes open-skull surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible followed by chemotherapy or radiation, which come with serious side effects and numerous hospital visits.
What if a patient’s brain tumor could be treated painlessly, without anesthesia, in the comfort of their home? Researchers at Stanford Medicine have developed, and tested in mice, a small wireless device that one day could do just that. The device is a remotely activated implant that can heat up nanoparticles injected into the tumor, gradually killing cancerous cells. In mice with brain tumors, 15 minutes of daily treatment over 15 days, as the animals went about their normal activities, was enough to significantly increase survival times. The researchers published their work in August in Nature Nanotechnology.
“The nanoparticles help us target the treatment to only the tumor, so the side effects will be relatively less compared with chemotherapy and radiation,” said Hamed Arami, PhD, co-lead author of the paper, a former postdoctoral fellow at Stanford Medicine who is now at Arizona State University.
Arami, trained as a bioengineer, came to focus on brain cancer as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of the late Sam Gambhir, MD, former chair of radiology at Stanford Medicine and a pioneer in molecular imaging and cancer diagnostics who died of cancer in 2020 . Five years prior, Gambhir’s teenage son, Milan, died of a glioblastoma.
Source: https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Arizona State University, brain tumors, cancerous cells, cancers, Glioblastoma, implant, nanoparticles, Stanford Medicine, wireless
October 21, 2022
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An international group of researchers from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden have achieved dizzying data transmission speeds and are the first in the world to transmit more than 1 petabit per second (Pbit/s) using only a single laser and a single optical chip. 1 petabit corresponds to 1 million gigabits.
In the experiment, the researchers succeeded in transmitting 1.8 Pbit/s, which corresponds to twice the total global Internet traffic. And only carried by the light from one optical source. The light source is a custom-designed optical chip, which can use the light from a single infrared laser to create a rainbow spectrum of many colours, i.e. many frequencies. Thus, the one frequency (colour) of a single laser can be multiplied into hundreds of frequencies (colours) in a single chip.
All the colours are fixed at a specific frequency distance from each other – just like the teeth on a comb – which is why it is called a frequency comb. Each colour (or frequency) can then be isolated and used to imprint data. The frequencies can then be reassembled and sent over an optical fibre, thus transmitting data. Even a huge volume of data, as the researchers have discovered.
The experimental demonstration showed that a single chip could easily carry 1.8 Pbit/s, which—with contemporary state-of-the-art commercial equipment—would otherwise require more than 1,000 lasers. Victor Torres Company, professor at Chalmers University of Technology, is head of the research group that has developed and manufactured the chip.
“What is special about this chip is that it produces a frequency comb with ideal characteristics for fiber-optical communications – it has high optical power and covers a broad bandwidth within the spectral region that is interesting for advanced optical communications,” says Victor Torres Company.
Interestingly enough, the chip was not optimized for this particular application. “In fact, some of the characteristic parameters were achieved by coincidence and not by design,” adds Victor Torres Company. “However, with efforts in my team, we are now capable to reverse engineer the process and achieve with high reproducibility microcombs for target applications in telecommunications.”
In addition, the researchers created a computational model to examine theoretically the fundamental potential for data transmission with a single chip identical to the one used in the experiment. The calculations showed enormous potential for scaling up the solution.
Professor Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe, Head of the Centre of Excellence for Silicon Photonics for Optical Communications (SPOC) at DTU, explains:
“Our calculations show that—with the single chip made by Chalmers University of Technology, and a single laser—we will be able to transmit up to 100 Pbit/s. The reason for this is that our solution is scalable—both in terms of creating many frequencies and in terms of splitting the frequency comb into many spatial copies and then optically amplifying them, and using them as parallel sources with which we can transmit data. Although the comb copies must be amplified, we do not lose the qualities of the comb, which we utilize for spectrally efficient data transmission.”
Source: https://www.dtu.dk/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, colours, data, data transmission, DTU, frequencies, infrared laser, laser, optical chip, petabit, rainbow spectrum, SPOC, Technical University of Denmark
October 20, 2022
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Li-ion batteries (LIBs) are one of the most used batteries that support modern ITC society, including smartphones and EVs. LIBs are repeatedly charged and discharged by Li-ions passing back and forth between the positive and negative electrodes, with the Li-ion electrolyte acting as a passageway for the ions.
Normally, organic electrolytes such as liquid ethylene carbonate (EC) and their gels have been used as the Li-ion electrolyte due to their voltage resistance and ionic conductivity. However, as liquids and gels are flammable, a switch to safer polymeric solid electrolytes is preferable.
Polymeric solid electrolytes such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) have been proposed as impact-resistant Li-ion electrolytes. However, PEG-based polymer electrolytes crystallize near room temperature, resulting in a significant drop in Li-ion conductivity to around 10-6 S/cm at room temperature. To solve this problem, a research group has invented a new type of polymeric solid electrolyte by combining a porous polymer membrane with several micron pores and a photo-cross-linkable polyethylene glycol PEG-based polymer electrolyte.
This polymeric solid electrolyte not only shows high performance as an electrolyte but is also expected to be effective in deterring the formation of Li dendrites (dendritic crystals), which can cause ignition, due to the inclusion of a porous membrane. Through the realization of safe, high-performance LIBs, this achievement will contribute to the realization of a sustainable energy supply, which is the seventh goal of the SDGs.
Source: https://www.tohoku.ac.jp/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: electrodes, energy, ev, ionic conductivity, ions, Li-ion batteries, lib, liquid ethylene carbonate, polyethylene glycol, Polymeric solid electrolytes, smart-phone
October 19, 2022
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Two major pharmaceutical companies are testing a personalized vaccine that might prevent the recurrence of a specific type of skin cancer. Moderna, one of the companies behind the COVID-19 vaccine, and Merck, an enterprise focused largely on oncology and preventative medicines, are teaming up to see if they can reduce the public’s risk of re-developing the deadliest form of skin cancer: melanoma.
The vaccine essentially combines two medical technologies: the mRNA vaccine and Merck’s Keytruda. As with the COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA shots don’t require an actual virus. Instead, they use a disease’s genetic code to “teach” the immune system to recognize and fight that particular illness. This makes it relatively easy and inexpensive for scientists to develop mRNA vaccines and edit them if a new form of the disease emerges. Keytruda, meanwhile, is a prescription medication that helps prevent melanoma from coming back after known cancer cells have been surgically removed.
Moderna and Merck are testing the feasibility of not only creating a two-in-one drug with both technologies but also customizing individual vaccines to suit their respective patients. Each vaccine is engineered to activate the patient’s immune system, which in turn deploys T cells (a type of white blood cell known to fight cancer) that go after the specific mutations of a patient’s tumor. Keytruda assists this effort by barring certain cell proteins from getting in the way of T cells’ intervention.
The experimental drug is currently in its second clinical trial out of three. The trial involves 157 participants with high-risk melanoma who just successfully underwent surgical removal. Some of the participants were given the personalized vaccine, while others were given Keytruda alone. Moderna and Merck will observe whether the participants’ melanoma returns over the span of approximately one year, with primary data expected at the end of this year.
If a vaccine preventing the recurrence of melanoma does in fact become commercially available, it could prevent more than 7,000 deaths per year in the US alone.
Source: https://www.extremetech.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: cancer cells, genetic code, immune system, Keytruda, melanoma, Merck, Moderna, mRNA vaccine, oncology, personalized vaccine, proteins, skin cancer, T-cells, tumor, virus
October 18, 2022
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Textile engineers have developed a fabric woven out of ultra-fine nano-threads made in part of phase-change materials and other advanced substances that combine to produce a fabric that can respond to changing temperatures to heat up and cool down its wearer depending on need. The material that can store and release large amounts of heat when the material changes phase from liquid to solid. Combining the threads with electrothermal and photothermal coatings that enhance the effect, they have in essence developed a fabric that can both quickly cool the wearer down and warm them up as conditions change.
Such fabrics often make use of phase-change materials (PCMs) that can store and later release large amounts of heat when the material changes phase (or state of matter, for example, from solid to liquid). One such material is paraffin, which can in principle be incorporated into a textile material in different ways. When the temperature of the environment around the paraffin reaches its melting point, its physical state changes from solid to liquid, which involves an absorption of heat. Then heat is released when the temperature reaches paraffin’s freezing point.
“The problem here has been that the manufacturing methods for phase-change micro-capsules are complex and very costly,” said Hideaki Morikawa, corresponding author of the paper and an advanced textiles engineer with the Institute for Fiber Engineering at Shinshu University. “Worse still, this option offers insufficient flexibility for any realistically wearable application.”
So the researchers turned to an option called coaxial electrospinning. Electrospinning is a method of manufacturing extremely fine fibers with diameters on the order of nanometers. When a polymer solution contained in a bulk reservoir, typically a syringe tipped with a needle, is connected to a high-voltage power source, electric charge accumulates on the surface of the liquid.
A paper describing the manufacturing technique appeared in the American Chemical Society journal ACSNano.
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: coaxial electrospinning, cold, fabric, fiber, hot, nano-threads, paraffin, PCM, phase-change materials, Shinshu University, temperature, textile
October 17, 2022
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Vaccines that target cancer could be available before the end of the decade, according to the husband and wife team behind one of the most successful Covid vaccines of the pandemic. Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, who co-founded BioNTech, the German firm that partnered with Pfizer to manufacture a revolutionary mRNA Covid vaccine, said they had made breakthroughs that fuelled their optimism for cancer vaccines in the coming years. Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Prof Türeci described how the mRNA technology at the heart of BioNTech’s Covid vaccine could be repurposed so that it primed the immune system to attack cancer cells instead of invading coronaviruses.
Asked when cancer vaccines based on mRNA might be ready to use in patients, Prof Sahin said they could be available “before 2030”.
An mRNA Covid vaccine works by ferrying the genetic instructions for harmless spike proteins on the Covid virus into the body. The instructions are taken up by cells which churn out the spike protein. These proteins, or antigens, are then used as “wanted posters” – telling the immune system’s antibodies and other defences what to search for and attack. The same approach can be taken to prime the immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells, said Türeci, BioNTech’s chief medical officer. Rather than carrying code that identifies viruses, the vaccine contains genetic instructions for cancer antigens – proteins that stud the surfaces of tumour cells.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: antigens, BionTech, cancer, cells, mRNA Covid vaccine, Pfizer, spike proteins, vaccine
October 14, 2022
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Human neurons transplanted into a rat’s brain continue to grow, forming connections with the animals’ own brain cells and helping guide their behavior, new research has shown. In a study published in the journal Nature today, lab-grown clumps of human brain cells were transplanted into the brains of newborn rats. They grew and integrated with the rodents’ own neural circuits, eventually making up around one-sixth of their brains. These animals could be used to learn more about human neuropsychiatric disorders, say the researchers behind the work.
“It’s an important step forward in progress into [understanding and treating] brain diseases,” says Julian Savulescu, a bioethicist at the National University of Singapore, who was not involved in the study. But the development also raises ethical questions, he says, particularly surrounding what it means to “humanize” animals.
Sergiu Pașca at the University of Stanford has been working for more than a decade with neural organoids—small clumps of neurons, grown in a dish, that resemble specific brain regions. These organoids are often created from human skin cells, which are first made into stem cells. The stem cells can then be encouraged to form neurons in the lab, under the right conditions. The resulting organoids can be used to study how brain cells fire and communicate—and how they malfunction in some disorders.
But there’s only so much a clump of cells in the lab can tell you. When it comes down to it, these cells don’t really replicate what is happening in our brains—which is why Pașca and many others in the field avoid the commonly used term “mini-brains”. The organoid cells can’t form the same complex connections. They don’t fire in the same way, either. And they aren’t as big as the cells in our brains. “Even when we kept human neurons for hundreds of days … we noticed that human neurons don’t grow to the size to which a human neuron in a human brain would grow,” says Pașca.
It is also impossible to tell how changes to neurons in the lab might lead to symptoms of a neuropsychiatric disorder. If cells in a dish show a change in their shape, the way they fire, or the proteins they make, what does that mean for a person’s memory or behavior, for example? To get around these issues, Pașca and his colleagues transplanted organoids into the brains of living rats—specifically, newborn rats. The brains of very young animals undergo extensive growth and rewiring as they develop. Neurons transplanted at such an early stage should have the best chance of being integrated with the rats’ own brain circuits, Pașca reasoned.
The team used organoids made from skin cells. These cells were made into stem cells in the lab before being encouraged to form layers of cells that resemble those in the human cortex, the folded outer part of the brain that contains regions responsible for thought, vision, hearing, memory, and sensing the environment, among other things. This process took around two months in the lab. The resulting three-dimensional organoids were then injected into the brains of days-old rats through an incision in the skull. The organoids were transplanted into the sensory cortex, a region that plays a role in helping animals sense their environment.
Within four months, brain scans showed that the organoids had grown to around nine times their original volume—and made up around a third of one brain hemisphere. The cells appeared to have formed connections with rat brain cells and been incorporated into brain circuits.
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: brain cells, National University of Singapore, neural organoids, neurons, neuropsychiatric disorders, proteins, skin cell, stem cells, University of Stanford
October 13, 2022
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Scientists from NTU Singapore, led by Professor Yang Yaowen, Associate Chair of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, have developed a low-cost device that can harness energy from wind as gentle as a light breeze and store it as electricity. When exposed to winds with a velocity as low as two metres per second (m/s), the device can produce a voltage of three volts and generate electricity power of up to 290 microwatts, which is sufficient to power a commercial sensor device and for it to also send the data to a mobile phone or a computer.
The light and durable device, called a wind harvester, also diverts any electricity that is not in use to a battery, where it can be stored to power devices in the absence of wind. The scientists say their invention has the potential to replace batteries in powering light emitting diode (LED) lights and structural health monitoring sensors. Those are used on urban structures, such as bridges and skyscrapers, to monitor their structural health, alerting engineers to issues such as instabilities or physical damage.
Measuring only 15 centimetres by 20 centimetres, the device can easily be mounted on the sides of buildings, and would be ideal for urban environments, such as Singaporean suburbs, where average wind speeds are less than 2.5 m/s, outside of thunderstorms.
Source: https://www.ntu.edu.sg/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: battery, breeze, electricity, energy, LED, light emitting diode, NTU Singapore, velocity, wind, wind harvester
October 12, 2022
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Two weeks ago, the asteroid Dimorphos was minding its own business, quietly orbiting around its partner Didymos, when suddenly NASA’s DART spacecraft plowed into it at 14,000 miles per hour.
The space agency and its partners planned that collision to see whether such an impact could alter an asteroid or comet’s trajectory—should humanity ever need to defend the planet from an oncoming space rock. Before the crash on September 26, Dimorphos circled its neighbor like clockwork: one lap every 11 hours and 55 minutes. If the DART test was successful, the proof would be a change in that orbital period, showing that the refrigerator-sized spacecraft had nudged the asteroid onto a different path. Now the DART team has an answer: It worked—even better than expected.
“For the first time ever, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary body,” said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA headquarters in Washington, at a press conference today revealing the result.
The team would have considered a 10-minute difference a success, said NASA chief Bill Nelson. But DART actually shortened the asteroid’s orbit by a whopping 32 minutes. Dimorphos now takes only about 11 hours and 23 minutes to circle its partner, he said—a significant change, meaning that it is indeed possible to deflect a small asteroid’s path.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: asteroid, collision, DART, Didymos, Dimorphos, impact, NASA, orbit, Planetary Science Division, space rock
October 11, 2022
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Voices offer lots of information. Turns out, they can even help diagnose an illness — and researchers are working on an app for that. The National Institutes of Health is funding a massive research project to collect voice data and develop an AI that could diagnose people based on their speech. Everything from your vocal cord vibrations to breathing patterns when you speak offers potential information about your health, says laryngologist Dr. Yael Bensoussan, the director of the University of South Florida’s Health Voice Center and a leader on the study.
“We asked experts: Well, if you close your eyes when a patient comes in, just by listening to their voice, can you have an idea of the diagnosis they have?” Bensoussan says. “And that’s where we got all our information.”
Someone who speaks low and slowly might have Parkinson’s disease. Slurring is a sign of a stroke. Scientists could even diagnose depression or cancer. The team will start by collecting the voices of people with conditions in five areas: neurological disorders, voice disorders, mood disorders, respiratory disorders and pediatric disorders like autism and speech delays. The project is part of the NIH‘s Bridge to AI program, which launched over a year ago with more than $100 million in funding from the federal government, with the goal of creating large-scale health care databases for precision medicine.
“We were really lacking large what we call open source databases,” Bensoussan says. “Every institution kind of has their own database of data. But to create these networks and these infrastructures was really important to then allow researchers from other generations to use this data.” This isn’t the first time researchers have used AI to study human voices, but it’s the first time data will be collected on this level — the project is a collaboration between USF, Cornell and 10 other institutions. “We saw that everybody was kind of doing very similar work but always at a smaller level,” Bensoussan says. “We needed to do something as a team and build a network.”
The ultimate goal is an app that could help bridge access to rural or underserved communities, by helping general practitioners refer patients to specialists. Long term, iPhones or Alexa could detect changes in your voice, such as a cough, and advise you to seek medical attention.
Source: https://www.npr.org/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: AI, Atificial Intelligence, autism, breathing, cancer, Cornell, depression, illness, mood disorders, neurological disorders, Parkinson's, pediatric disorders, precision medicine, respiratory disorders, slurring, sound, speech, speech delays, stroke, University of South Florida, USF, vocal cord vibrations, voice, voice disorders
October 10, 2022
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According to the Cleveland Clinic, up until some 10,000 years ago, it’s believed everyone in the world had brown eyes. Now, an estimated 8-10% of people in the world have blue eyes. How did that come to be? As it turns out, researchers now believe blue eyes all started with a single person who passed on a genetic mutation that spread across the world. In other words, everyone with blue eyes shares a single, common ancestor.
Back in 2008, researchers with the University of Copenhagen examined the exact genetic mutation that resulted in blue eyes all those years ago. Their research was published in the The Journal of Human Genetics. According to Science Daily, the study’s lead author, Professor Hans Eiberg, explained that humans originally had brown eyes, and a gene mutation “turned off” the ability to produce brown eyes – resulting in some people having blue eyes. The press release elaborated that the affected gene, the OCA2 gene, regulates brown pigment in the eyes. If the OCA2 gene had been completely destroyed or “turned off” then the affected humans would be without any melanin in their hair, eyes, or skin color (a condition known as albinism). But with the specific mutation, the body has a limited ability to produce melanin in the iris, resulting in a blue iris, rather than a brown iris. The genetic mutation isn’t a positive or negative trait.
“Mutations can affect things like freckles, balding patterns, hair color, and more“. “It simply shows that nature is constantly shuffling the human genome, creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes and trying out different changes as it does so,” explained Eiberg.
According to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, researchers studied the mitochondrial DNA of individuals with blue eyes from various countries, such as Jordan, Denmark, and Turkey. The researchers found that over 97% of the blue-eyed people in the study shared a single haplotype – a grouping of genomic variants that are usually inherited. Because of this, researchers believe that the mutation is passed on genetically, meaning that everyone with blue eyes is related.
“From this, we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor. They inherited the same switch at the same spot in their DNA,” said Eidberg in a press release, shared in EurekaAlerta!,
Source: https://blog.thebreastcancersite.greatergood.com
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: albinism, blue eyes, brown eyes, Cleveland Clinic, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, gene mutation, genetic mutation, genomic variants, hair, haplotype, iris, melanin, mitochondrial DNA, OCA2 gene, pigment, skin color, University of Copenhagen
October 7, 2022
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New research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) bolsters a hypothesis that Alzheimer’s disease is caused by a decline in levels of a specific protein, contrary to a prevailing theory that has been recently called into question.
The prevailing narrative in the field has stated Alzheimer’s is caused by amyloid plaques in the brain, but Alberto Espay, MD, Andrea Sturchio, MD, and their colleagues hypothesized that plaques are simply a consequence of the levels of soluble amyloid-beta in the brain decreasing. These levels decrease because the normal protein, under situations of biological, metabolic or infectious stress, transform into the abnormal amyloid plaques.
In the current study, the team analyzed the levels of amyloid-beta in a subset of patients with mutations that predict an overexpression of amyloid plaques in the brain, which is thought to make them more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
“What we found was that individuals already accumulating plaques in their brains who are able to generate high levels of soluble amyloid-beta have a lower risk of evolving into dementia over a three-year span,” said Espay, professor of neurology in the UC College of Medicine.
Source: https://www.uc.edu/
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https://www.eurasiareview.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Alzheimer's, amyloid plaques, brain, dementia, mutations, overexpression, protein, University of Cincinnati
October 6, 2022
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For generations, scientists argued over whether there was truly an objective, predictable reality for even quantum particles, or whether quantum “weirdness” was inherent to physical systems. In the 1960s, John Stewart Bell developed an inequality describing the maximum possible statistical correlation between two entangled particles: Bell’s inequality. But certain experiments could violate Bell’s inequality, and these three pioneers — John Clauser, Alain Aspect, and Anton Zeilinger — helped make quantum information systems a bona fide science.
There’s a simple but profound question that physicists, despite all we’ve learned about the Universe, cannot fundamentally answer: “What is real?” We know that particles exist, and we know that particles have certain properties when you measure them. But we also know that the very act of measuring a quantum state — or even allowing two quanta to interact with one another — can fundamentally alter or determine what you measure. An objective reality, devoid of the actions of an observer, does not appear to exist in any sort of fundamental way.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t rules that nature must obey. Those rules exist, even if they’re difficult and counterintuitive to understand. Instead of arguing over one philosophical approach versus another to uncover the true quantum nature of reality, we can turn to properly-designed experiments. Even two entangled quantum states must obey certain rules, and that’s leading to the development of quantum information sciences: an emerging field with potentially revolutionary applications. 2022’s Nobel Prize in Physics was just announced, and it’s awarded to John Clauser, Alain Aspect, and Anton Zeilinger for the pioneering development of quantum information systems, entangled photons, and the violation of Bell’s inequalities. It’s a Nobel Prize that’s long overdue, and the science behind it is particularly mind-bending.
There are all sorts of experiments we can perform that illustrate the indeterminate nature of our quantum reality.
Place a number of radioactive atoms in a container and wait a specific amount of time. You can predict, on average, how many atoms will remain versus how many will have decayed, but you have no way of predicting which atoms will and won’t survive. We can only derive statistical probabilities.
Fire a series of particles through a narrowly spaced double slit and you’ll be able to predict what sort of interference pattern will arise on the screen behind it. However, for each individual particle, even when sent through the slits one at a time, you cannot predict where it will land.
Pass a series of particles (that possess quantum spin) through a magnetic field and half will deflect “up” while half deflect “down” along the direction of the field. If you don’t pass them through another, perpendicular magnet, they’ll maintain their spin orientation in that direction; if you do, however, their spin orientation will once again become randomized.
Certain aspects of quantum physics appear to be totally random. But are they really random, or do they only appear random because our information about these systems are limited, insufficient to reveal an underlying, deterministic reality? Ever since the dawn of quantum mechanics, physicists have argued over this, from Einstein to Bohr and beyond.
Source: https://bigthink.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: atoms, Bell’s inequalities, Bohr, Einstein, entangled photons, Nobel Prize, particles, predictable reality, quanta, Quantum Entanglement, quantum mechanics, Quantum Physics, quantum states, random
October 5, 2022
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A simple eye test that predicts death from cardiovascular disease has been developed by British scientists. It combines artificial intelligence (AI) with scans of the retina – a membrane at the back of peepers that contains light sensitive cells. The technique could lead to a screening programme – enabling drugs and lifestyle changes to be prescribed decades before symptoms emerge. Lead author Professor Alicja Regina Rudnicka, of St George’s University of London, said the test is inexpensive, accessible and non-invasive. People at risk of stroke, heart attack and other circulatory conditions could undergo RV (artificial intelligence enabled retinal vasculometry) during routine visits to the optician.
Prof Rudnicka said: “It has the potential for reaching a higher proportion of the population in the community because of ‘high street’ availability. “RV offers an alternative predictive biomarker to traditional risk-scores for vascular health – without the need for blood sampling or blood pressure measurement. “It is highly likely to help prolong disease-free status in an ever-aging population with increasing comorbidities, and assist with minimising healthcare costs associated with lifelong vascular diseases.”
An algorithm called QUARTZ was developed based on retinal images from tens of thousands of Britons aged 40 to 69. It focused on the width, area and curvature, or tortuosity, of tiny blood vessels called arterioles and venules. The performance of QUARTZ was compared with the widely used Framingham Risk Scores framework – both separately and jointly.
The health of all the participants was tracked for an average of seven to nine years, during which time there were 327 and 201 circulatory disease deaths among 64,144 UK Biobank and 5,862 EPIC-Norfolk participants respectively. In men, arteriolar and venular width, tortuosity, and width variation emerged as important predictors of death from circulatory disease. In women, arteriolar and venular area and width and venular tortuosity and width variation contributed to risk prediction.
The predictive impact of retinal vasculature on circulatory disease death interacted with smoking, drugs to treat high blood pressure, and previous heart attacks. Overall, these predictive models, based on age, smoking, medical history and retinal vasculature, captured between half and two-thirds of circulatory disease deaths in those most at risk.
Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: : Blood vessels, AI, algorithm, arterioles, Artificial Intelligence, Biobank, blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, death, drugs, eye test, Framingham Risk Scores, heart attack, light-sensitive cells, QUARTZ, retina, retinal vasculature, retinal vasculometry, RV, smoking, St George's University of London, stroke, venules
October 4, 2022
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Northwestern University researchers have developed a new injectable therapy that harnesses “dancing molecules” to reverse paralysis and repair tissue after severe spinal cord injuries. In a new study, researchers administered a single injection to tissues surrounding the spinal cords of paralyzed mice. Just four weeks later, the animals regained the ability to walk.
By sending bioactive signals to trigger cells to repair and regenerate, the breakthrough therapy dramatically improved severely injured spinal cords in five key ways: The severed extensions of neurons, called axons, regenerated. Scar tissue, which can create a physical barrier to regeneration and repair, significantly diminished. Myelin, the insulating layer of axons that is important in transmitting electrical signals efficiently, reformed around cells. Functional blood vessels formed to deliver nutrients to cells at the injury site. More motor neurons survived.
After the therapy performs its function, the materials biodegrade into nutrients for the cells within 12 weeks and then completely disappear from the body without noticeable side effects. This is the first study in which researchers controlled the collective motion of molecules through changes in chemical structure to increase a therapeutic’s efficacy.
“Our research aims to find a therapy that can prevent individuals from becoming paralyzed after major trauma or disease,” said Northwestern’s Samuel I. Stupp, who led the study. “For decades, this has remained a major challenge for scientists because our body’s central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord, does not have any significant capacity to repair itself after injury or after the onset of a degenerative disease. We are going straight to the FDA to start the process of getting this new therapy approved for use in human patients, who currently have very few treatment options.”
Stupp is Board of Trustees Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern, where he is founding director of the Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology (SQI) and its affiliated research center, the Center for Regenerative Nanomedicine.
Source: https://news.northwestern.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: : Blood vessels, axons, bioactive signals, cells, Center for Regenerative Nanomedicine, dancing molecules, electrical signals, motor neurons, myelin, neurons, Northwestern, Northwestern University, paralysis, paralyzed mice, regeneration, scar tissue, Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology, spinal cord, SQI, tissues
October 3, 2022
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Rice University engineers say they’ve solved a long-standing conundrum in making stable, efficient solar panels out of halide perovskites. It took finding the right solvent design to apply a 2D top layer of desired composition and thickness without destroying the 3D bottom one (or vice versa). Such a cell would turn more sunlight into electricity than either layer on its own, with better stability. Chemical and biomolecular engineer Aditya Mohite and his lab at Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering reported in Science their success at building thin 3D/2D solar cells that deliver a power conversion efficiency of 24.5%. That’s as efficient as most commercially available solar cells, Mohite said.
A discovery by Rice University engineers brings efficient, stable bilayer perovskite solar cells closer to commercialization. The cells are about a micron thick, with 2D and 3D layers
“This is really good for flexible, bifacial cells where light comes in from both sides and also for back-contacted cells,” the scientist said. “The 2D perovskites absorb blue and visible photons, and the 3D side absorbs near-infrared.”
Perovskites are crystals with cubelike lattices known to be efficient light harvesters, but the materials tend to be stressed by light, humidity and heat. Mohite and many others have worked for years to make perovskite solar cells practical. The new advance, he said, largely removes the last major roadblock to commercial production.
Source: https://news.rice.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: 3D/2D solar cells, electricity, perovskite, Rice University, solar cells, solvent, sunlight
September 30, 2022
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A decade ago, biologists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier published a landmark paper describing a natural immune system found in bacteria and its potential as a tool for editing the genes of living organisms. A year later, in 2013, Feng Zhang and his colleagues at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard reported that they’d harnessed that system, known as Crispr, to edit human and animal cells in the lab. The work by both teams led to an explosion of interest in using Crispr to treat genetic diseases, as well as a 2020 Nobel Prize for Doudna and Charpentier.
Many diseases arise from gene mutations, so if Crispr could just snip out or replace an abnormal gene, it could in theory correct the disease. But one of the challenges of turning test tube Crispr discoveries into cures for patients has been figuring out how to get the gene-editing components to the place in the body that needs treatment.
One biotech company, Crispr Therapeutics, has gotten around that issue by editing patients’ cells outside the body. Scientists there have used the tool to treat dozens of people with sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia—two common blood disorders. In those trials, investigators extract patients’ red blood cells, edit them to correct a disease-causing mutation, then infuse them back into the body.
But this “ex vivo” approach has downsides. It’s complex to administer, expensive, and has limited uses. Most diseases occur in cells and tissues that can’t be easily taken out of the body, treated, and put back in. So the next wave of Crispr research is focused on editing “in vivo”—that is, directly inside a patient’s body. Last year, Intellia Therapeutics was the first to demonstrate that this was possible for a disease called transthyretin amyloidosis. And last week, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company showed in-the-body editing in a second disease.
Source: https://www.intelliatx.com/
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https://www.wired.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: beta thalassemia, blood, cells, CRISPR, CRISPR Therapeutics, Emmanuelle Charpentier, gene mutations, Gene-editing, genetic diseases, Harvard, immune system, Intellia Therapeutics, Jennifer Douda, MIT, mutation, sickle cell anemia, tissues, transthyretin amyloidosis
September 29, 2022
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Alice, the commuter aircraft designed by the start-up Eviation, has soared to 3,500 feet in successful test in US. The plane was built to carry nine passengers and two pilots and took off from Moses Lake, Washington, at 7:10 a.m. Tuesday. The plane reached an altitude of 3,500 feet (1,066 meters) and landed eight minutes later. The company’s goal is to show such electric planes are viable as commuter aircraft for regional travel, flying at an altitude of about 15,000 feet (4,572 meters).
The plane, designed by engineers in Israel and Washington state, is powered by 21,500 small Tesla-style battery cells that weigh over 4 tons. Eviation founder Omer Bar-Yohav hailed the plane as a “new age of aviation” in an interview with The Times of Israel last year.
https://www.timesofisrael.com
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Previous post with detailed tech informations
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Alice, aviation, battery cells, commuter aircraft, electric airplane, Eviation
September 28, 2022
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A new Alzheimer’s drug from Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai and US drugmaker Biogen has shown promising results in a large-scale clinical trial. The companies announced the trial’s success in a press release, saying their drug — called lecanemab — was observed to have slowed cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients by 27% over 18 months.
The companies said 1,795 patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s were randomly selected to receive a placebo treatment or doses of lecanemab every two weeks. Their cognitive decline was then measured on six fronts, including “memory, orientation, judgment and problem solving, community affairs, home and hobbies, and personal care.” According to the statement, lecanemab significantly “reduced clinical decline” over the 18-month timeframe.
Lecanemab, per Eisai, is a monoclonal antibody treatment, which targets toxic amyloid plaques — protein clumps that researchers proposed were the cause of the neurodegeneration seen in Alzheimer’s.
The companies noted that around 21% of the patients who received the lecanemab treatment experienced brain swelling that was visible on PET scans.
“Today’s announcement gives patients and their families hope that lecanemab, if approved, can potentially slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, and provide a clinically meaningful impact on cognition and function,” said Michel Vounatsos, Biogen‘s chief executive officer in the companies’ joint press release.
Eisai’s chief executive Haruo Naito said in the company’s press release that the lecanemab study’s success was “an important milestone for Eisai in fulfilling our mission to meet the expectations of the Alzheimer’s disease community.”
Source: https://investors.biogen.com/
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https://www.businessinsider.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Alzheimer's, Biogen, Eisai, lecanemab, monoclonal antibody
September 27, 2022
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Tiny robots made of algae are swimming through the lung fluids of mice, delivering antibiotics straight to the bacteria that cause a deadly form of pneumonia. It’s happening now in UC San Diego ( UCSD) labs and it shows the tremendous potential of microrobotics. Nanoparticles, loaded with medicine, are attached to the microrobots and introduced into the lungs.
Microscopic and colorized view of an algae robot covered with drug-carrying particles
“They can actively swim in the body fluid, dip into the thick part of the tissue and carry a lot of these therapeutic payloads to the disease site, and then very effectively kill the bacteria,” said professor of nanoengineering Liangfang Zhang, one of the lead researchers.
Zhang said the results of the experiment were dramatic. The mice treated with drugs in a conventional way died within days.
“But when we loaded the drugs into our formulation — the nanoparticle and the algae system — we found that all the animals survived,” he said. “We achieved a remarkable 100% survival rate from the study.”
Anyone who has swallowed an aspirin knows one very conventional way of delivering drugs. The medication is ingested and is carried throughout the body. “You take the pill and it’s all passive. The drug goes slowly by diffusion,” explained Joseph Wang, a distinguished professor of nanoengineering at UC San Diego. “By having dynamic active delivery, we are accelerating targeted delivery to the right location.”
Wang’s lab at UCSD shows many examples of microrobots, designed to navigate the body’s channels and cavities. The algae robot is organic, and swims with its flagella. Another robot, made from zinc, reacts with gastric fluid and generates hydrogen gas, which propels it like a true rocket.
Wang points out the algae robot is not attracted to the bacteria, but they move so effectively through the fluids of the lung that it greatly improves the dispersion of the drug. Wang has actually loaded robots into pills, including aspirin. “This we showed with pigs, actually, and showed that when you have the active delivery there is much better uptake by the blood,” Wang said.
The purpose of the research, of course, is not to treat pigs or mice, but humans. Zhang said the study of algae robots in the lungs is very innovative and experimental, and human trials are still a ways away.
“We demonstrated the feasibility of the technology and what I foresee is, we need to study more to demonstrate the efficacy in large animal species,” he added, “before we can translate it to a human study.”
Source: https://www.kpbs.org/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: algae robot, aspirin, bacteria, lung fluids, lungs, microrobotics, microrobots, nanoparticles, UC San Diego, UCSD, zinc
September 26, 2022
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As the world builds out ever larger installations of wind and solar power systems, the need is growing fast for economical, large-scale backup systems to provide power when the sun is down and the air is calm. Today’s lithium-ion batteries are still too expensive for most such applications, and other options such as pumped hydro require specific topography that’s not always available. Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new kind of battery, made entirely from abundant and inexpensive materials, that could help to fill that gap. The new battery architecture, which uses aluminum and sulfur as its two electrode materials, with a molten salt electrolyte in between, is described today in the journal Nature, in a paper by MIT Professor Donald Sadoway, along with 15 others at MIT and in China, Canada, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
“I wanted to invent something that was better, much better, than lithium-ion batteries for small-scale stationary storage, and ultimately for automotive [uses],” explains Sadoway, who is the John F. Elliott Professor Emeritus of Materials Chemistry. In addition to being expensive, lithium-ion batteries contain a flammable electrolyte, making them less than ideal for transportation. So, Sadoway started studying the periodic table, looking for cheap, Earth-abundant metals that might be able to substitute for lithium. The commercially dominant metal, iron, doesn’t have the right electrochemical properties for an efficient battery, he says. But the second-most-abundant metal in the marketplace — and actually the most abundant metal on Earth — is aluminum. “So, I said, well, let’s just make that a bookend. It’s gonna be aluminum,” he says.
Source: https://news.mit.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Air, aluminum, backup, batteries, electrode materials, energy, iron, MIT, molten salt electrolyte, periodic table, RENEWABLE, solar panel, sulfur, sun, wind power
September 23, 2022
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A new type of cancer therapy that uses a common virus to infect and destroy harmful cells is showing big promise in early human trials, say UK scientists. One patient’s cancer vanished, while others saw their tumours shrink. The drug is a weakened form of the cold sore virus – herpes simplex – that has been modified to kill tumours. Larger and longer studies will be needed, but experts say the injection might ultimately offer a lifeline to more people with advanced cancers.
Krzysztof Wojkowski, a 39-year-old builder from west London, is one of the patients who took part in the ongoing phase one safety trial, run by the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. He was diagnosed in 2017 with cancer of the salivary glands, near the mouth. Despite surgery and other treatments at the time, his cancer continued to grow.
“I was told there was no options left for me and I was receiving end-of-life care. It was devastating, so it was incredible to be given the chance to join the trial.” A short course of the virus therapy – which is a specially modified version of the herpes virus which normally causes cold sores – appears to have cleared his cancer. “I had injections every two weeks for five weeks which completely eradicated my cancer. I’ve been cancer-free for two years now.”
The injections, given directly into the tumour, attacks cancer in two ways – by invading the cancerous cells and making them burst, and by activating the immune system. About 40 patients have tried the treatment as part of the trial. Some were given the virus injection, called RP2, on its own. Others also received another cancer drug – called nivolumab – as well.
The findings, presented at a medical conference in Paris, France, show that three out of nine patients given RP2 only, which included Krzysztof, saw their tumours shrink.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: cancer, cells, cold sore virus, herpes simplex, Institute of Cancer Research, RP2, virus
September 22, 2022
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Scientists in Russia have perfected hydroxyapatite, a material for mineralizing bones and teeth. By adding a complex of amino acids to hydroxyapatite, they were able to form a dental coating that replicates the composition and microstructure of natural enamel. Improved composition of the material repeats the features of the surface of the tooth at the molecular and structural level, and in terms of strength surpasses the natural tissue. The new method of dental restoration can be used to reduce the sensitivity of teeth in case of abrasion of enamel or to restore it after erosion or improper diet.
Hydroxyapatite is a compound that is a major component of human bones and teeth. Scientists selected a complex of polyfunctional organic and polar amino acids, including, for example, lysine, arginine, and histidine, which are important for the formation and repair of bone and muscle structures. The chosen amino acids made it possible to obtain hydroxyapatite, which is morphologically completely similar to apatite (the main component of tissues) of dental enamel. The researchers also described the conditions of the environment in which the processes of binding of hydroxyapatite to the dental tissue should occur. Only if these conditions are met it is possible to fully reproduce the structure of natural enamel.
“Traditionally in dentistry, composite restorative materials are used in enamel restoration. To increase the bonding efficiency of enamel and composite, the restoration technique involves acid etching of the enamel beforehand. The etching products left behind may not always have a positive effect on the bonding of enamel and synthetic materials. To reproduce the enamel layers with biomimetic techniques, we neutralized the media and removed the etching products using calcium alkali. In this way we improved the binding of the new hydroxyapatite layers,” explains Pavel Seredin.
The formation of a mineralized layer with properties resembling those of natural hard tissue was confirmed by field emission electron and atomic force microscopy as well as by chemical imaging of surface areas using Raman microspectroscopy. The study was conducted on healthy teeth to eliminate the influence of extraneous factors on the resulting layer and to be able to compare the results with healthy teeth. Next, the researchers will tackle the challenge of repairing larger defects, which can be of varying nature from the initial stages of caries to cracks and volumetric fractures.
The joint research was conducted by scientists from the Research and Education Center “Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies” of Ural Federal University, Voronezh State University, Voronezh State Medical University, Al-Azhar University, and the National Research Center (Egypt).
The study and experimental results are published in Results in Engineering.
Source: https://urfu.ru/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Al-Azhar University, amino acids, apatite, arginine, atomic force microscopy, bones, dental coating, dental restoration, field emission electron, histidine, hydroxyapatite, lysine, natural enamel, Raman microspectroscopy, sensitivity, strength, teeth, tissue, tooth, Ural Federal University, Voronezh State University
September 21, 2022
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As the world gets warmer, the use of power-hungry air conditioning systems is projected to increase significantly, putting a strain on existing power grids and bypassing many locations with little or no reliable electric power. Now, an innovative system developed at MIT offers a way to use passive cooling to preserve food crops and supplement conventional air conditioners in buildings, with no need for power and only a small need for water. The system, which combines radiative cooling, evaporative cooling, and thermal insulation in a slim package that could resemble existing solar panels, can provide up to about 19 degrees Fahrenheit (9.3 degrees Celsius) of cooling from the ambient temperature, enough to permit safe food storage for about 40 percent longer under very humid conditions. It could triple the safe storage time under dryer conditions.
The findings are reported today in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, in a paper by MIT postdoc Zhengmao Lu, Arny Leroy PhD ’21, professors Jeffrey Grossman and Evelyn Wang, and two others. While more research is needed in order to bring down the cost of one key component of the system, the researchers say that eventually such a system could play a significant role in meeting the cooling needs of many parts of the world where a lack of electricity or water limits the use of conventional cooling systems.The system cleverly combines previous standalone cooling designs that each provide limited amounts of cooling power, in order to produce significantly more cooling overall — enough to help reduce food losses from spoilage in parts of the world that are already suffering from limited food supplies.
“This technology combines some of the good features of previous technologies such as evaporative cooling and radiative cooling,” Lu says. By using this combination, he explains, “we show that you can achieve significant food life extension, even in areas where you have high humidity,” which limits the capabilities of conventional evaporative or radiative cooling systems.
In places that do have existing air conditioning systems in buildings, the new system could be used to significantly reduce the load on these systems by sending cool water to the hottest part of the system, the condenser. “By lowering the condenser temperature, you can effectively increase the air conditioner efficiency, so that way you can potentially save energy,” Lu says. Other groups have also been pursuing passive cooling technologies, he adds, but “by combining those features in a synergistic way, we are now able to achieve high cooling performance, even in high-humidity areas where previous technology generally cannot perform well.”
The system consists of three layers of material, which together provide cooling as water and heat pass through the device. The only maintenance required is adding water for the evaporation, but the consumption is so low that this need only be done about once every four days in the hottest, driest areas, and only once a month in wetter areas.
Source: https://news.mit.edu/
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| Tags: air conditioner, condenser, electricity, evaporative cooling, food crops, MIT, passive cooling, power, radiative cooling, thermal insulation, water
September 20, 2022
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Russia has issued a veiled threat to “retaliate” against SpaceX’s satellite internet system Starlink for aiding the Ukrainian military.
A Russian representative named Konstantin Vorontsov issued the warning last week at a United Nations working group meeting on reducing space threats.
Vorontsov—who was reportedly a former acting Deputy Director of Russia’s Foreign Ministry Department—didn’t name SpaceX or Starlink by name. But he noted: “We would like to underline an extremely dangerous trend that goes beyond the harmless use of outer space technologies and has become apparent during the events in Ukraine. Namely, the use by the United States and its allies of the elements of civilian, including commercial, infrastructure in outer space for military purposes,” according to the unofficial translation of his statement.
Vorontsov then issued his veiled threat by saying: “It seems like our colleagues do not realize that such actions in fact constitute indirect involvement in military conflicts. Quasi-civilian infrastructure may become a legitimate target for retaliation.”
https://www.pcmag.com/
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| Tags: Elon Musk, military conflict, outer space, Russia, SpaceX, Ukraine, United Nations, war
September 19, 2022
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A team of researchers led by Meenesh Singh at University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) has discovered a way to convert 100% of carbon dioxide captured from industrial exhaust into ethylene, a key building block for plastic products. While researchers have been exploring the possibility of converting carbon dioxide to ethylene for more than a decade, the UIC team’s approach is the first to achieve nearly 100% utilization of carbon dioxide to produce hydrocarbons. Their system uses electrolysis to transform captured carbon dioxide gas into high purity ethylene, with other carbon-based fuels and oxygen as byproducts.
The process can convert up to 6 metric tons of carbon dioxide into 1 metric ton of ethylene, recycling almost all carbon dioxide captured. Because the system runs on electricity, the use of renewable energy can make the process carbon negative. According to Singh, his team’s approach surpasses the net-zero carbon goal of other carbon capture and conversion technologies by actually reducing the total carbon dioxide output from industry.
“It’s a net negative,” he said. “For every 1 ton of ethylene produced, you’re taking 6 tons of CO2 from point sources that otherwise would be released to the atmosphere.”
Previous attempts at converting carbon dioxide into ethylene have relied on reactors that produce ethylene within the source carbon dioxide emission stream. In these cases, as little as 10% of CO2 emissions typically converts to ethylene. The ethylene must later be separated from the carbon dioxide in an energy-intensive process often involving fossil fuels. In UIC’s approach, an electric current is passed through a cell, half of which is filled with captured carbon dioxide, the other half with a water-based solution. An electrified catalyst draws charged hydrogen atoms from the water molecules into the other half of the unit separated by a membrane, where they combine with charged carbon atoms from the carbon dioxide molecules to form ethylene.
Among manufactured chemicals worldwide, ethylene ranks third for carbon emissions after ammonia and cement. Ethylene is used not only to create plastic products for the packaging, agricultural and automotive industries, but also to produce chemicals used in antifreeze, medical sterilizers and vinyl siding for houses. Ethylene is usually made in a process called steam cracking that requires enormous amounts of heat. Cracking generates about 1.5 metric tons of carbon emissions per ton of ethylene created. On average, manufacturers produce around 160 million tons of ethylene each year, which results in more than 260 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.
In addition to ethylene, the UIC scientists were able to produce other carbon-rich products useful to industry with their electrolysis approach. They also achieved a very high solar energy conversion efficiency, converting 10% of energy from the solar panels directly to carbon product output. This is well above the state-of-the-art standard of 2%. For all the ethylene they produced, the solar energy conversion efficiency was around 4%, approximately the same rate as photosynthesis.
Their findings are published in Cell Reports Physical Science.
Source: https://today.uic.edu/
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| Tags: carbon dioxide, CO2, electrolysis, ethylene, photosynthesis, plastic, solar energy conversion efficiency, UIC, University of Illinois Chicago
September 16, 2022
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Laughter comes in many forms, from a polite chuckle to a contagious howl of mirth. Scientists are now developing an AI system that aims to recreate these nuances of humour by laughing in the right way at the right time. The team behind the laughing robot, which is called Erica, say that the system could improve natural conversations between people and AI systems.
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“We think that one of the important functions of conversational AI is empathy,” said Dr Koji Inoue, of Kyoto University, the lead author of the research, published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI. “So we decided that one way a robot can empathise with users is to share their laughter.”
Inoue and his colleagues have set out to teach their AI system the art of conversational laughter. They gathered training data from more than 80 speed-dating dialogues between male university students and the robot, who was initially teleoperated by four female amateur actors.
The dialogue data was annotated for solo laughs, social laughs (where humour isn’t involved, such as in polite or embarrassed laughter) and laughter of mirth. This data was then used to train a machine learning system to decide whether to laugh, and to choose the appropriate type. It might feel socially awkward to mimic a small chuckle, but empathetic to join in with a hearty laugh. Based on the audio files, the algorithm learned the basic characteristics of social laughs, which tend to be more subdued, and mirthful laughs, with the aim of mirroring these in appropriate situations.
“Our biggest challenge in this work was identifying the actual cases of shared laughter, which isn’t easy because as you know, most laughter is actually not shared at all,” said Inoue. “We had to carefully categorise exactly which laughs we could use for our analysis and not just assume that any laugh can be responded to.”
The team tested out Erica’s “sense of humour” by creating four short dialogues for it to share with a person, integrating the new shared-laughter algorithm into existing conversation software. These were compared to scenarios where Erica didn’t laugh at all or emitted a social laugh every time she detected laughter.
The clips were played to 130 volunteers who rated the shared-laughter algorithm most favourably for empathy, naturalness, human-likeness and understanding. The team said laughter could help create robots with their own distinct character. “We think that they can show this through their conversational behaviours, such as laughing, eye gaze, gestures and speaking style,” said Inoue, although he added that it could take more than 20 years before it would be possible to have a “casual chat with a robot like we would with a friend.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, conversational laughter, Erica, human-likeness, humour, laughing robot, laughter, machine-learning, naturalness, robot, shared-laughter algorithm, social laughs, solo laughs, understanding
September 15, 2022
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Korean physicists achieved a breakthrough in research for clean nuclear energy when they managed to create an “artificial sun” by igniting a nuclear reaction so powerful that it achieved temperatures seven times hotter than our star. The team of scientists from Seoul National University and the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy reported that the reactor at the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reached temperatures of more than 100 million degrees Celsius for some 30 seconds — the first time hitting that milestone. The real sun hits temperatures of around 15 million degrees at its core. The study, which aims to mimic the natural reactions of the sun, is considered a breakthrough in what researchers say is the ultimate in “unlimited clean energy” — nuclear fusion, which combines atomic nuclei found in stars through the self-heating of matter in a plasma state. Researchers hope that the technology can be developed to harness the vast amounts of energy produced by nuclear fusion into electricity without emitting greenhouse gases, or creating the radioactive waste that’s generated by fission-based nuclear reactors, according to New Scientist.
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“We usually say that fusion energy is a dream energy source – it is almost limitless, with low emission of greenhouse gases and no high-level radioactive waste – [but the latest breakthrough] means fusion is not a dream,” said Yoo Suk-jae, president of the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy. Korean researchers are aiming to achieve plasma temperatures of more than 100 million degrees for 50 seconds by the end of the year. Eventually, they hope to reach the same temperatures for 300 seconds by 2026. “This is not the end of the story, we must move on to 300 seconds – 300 is the minimum time frame to demonstrate steady-state operations, then this plasma can work forever,” said KSTAR director Yoon Si-woo. “If we can’t achieve that, we have to do something else.”
In January, Chinese researchers said that their “artificial sun” reached 70 million degrees Celsius for 20 minutes — or five times hotter than the sun. The same “artificial sun” ran a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees for 101 seconds in May of last year.
The KSTAR team’s research paper has been published in Nature.
Source: https://nypost.com/
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| Tags: artificial sun, clean nuclear energy, electricity, greenhouse gas, Korea, Korea Institute of Fusion Energy, Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research, KSTAR, nuclear fusion, plasma, Seoul National University, sun
September 14, 2022
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A team of researchers at the National Taiwan University has trained an AI system on hundreds of examples of tumours in the pancreas to teach it to recognise pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly types of the disease after lung and colorectal cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, pancreatic cancer could kill over 49,000 people in 2022. Significantly, annually, only about a fifth of patients live for a year after diagnosis. (Inverse.com)
A new study of this AI tool published in the journal Radiology says that the technology would prove superior to current imaging techniques using CT scans which miss about 40% of pancreatic tumours that are smaller than 2 cm – the size beyond which the tumour spreads rapidly to other organs in the body. Because these tumours usually do not have clear borders that demarcate them from the surrounding tissue they are hard to detect and many patients lose their chance at treatment before the tumour becomes rampant.
Once trained, the researchers tested the system on 546 scans of patients with pancreatic cancer, and 733 without, that is, a total of 1,279 patients. Significantly, the system was successful in detecting 90% of cancer cases. It also exhibited 96% efficiency at detecting the absence of cancer thus eliminating the chance of false positives. In another test, which sourced data from 1,473 people in hospitals across Taiwan, the AI model achieved a 90% sensitivity and 93% specificity. It was accurate 75% of the time at detecting tumours which were smaller than 2 cm, a much better performance compared to radiologists who were only able to achieve 60% accuracy.
“I think AI can do two things: the first is to help doctors do what they can, but with less time and energy,” says Wei-Chi Liao, professor of internal medicine at the National Taiwan University and one of the lead study authors. “And the second is to help doctors do what they cannot always do; for example, in our study, detect cancers that are not very visible to humans.”
Source: https://dailyalts.com/
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| Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, National Taiwan University, pancreatic cancer, tumours
September 13, 2022
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The onset of Alzheimer’s disease can be diagnosed by examining proteins in the retina instead of complicated and invasive PET scans or cerebrospinal fluid analysis. Alzheimer’s disease – the progressive neurological disorder that causes the brain to shrink and brain cells to die – is the most common cause of dementia. The disease causes a continuous decline in thinking, behavior and social skills that affect a person’s ability to function independently.
But while the disorder is incurable, it is important to diagnose it as rapidly as possible so measures can be taken to slow the decline. Doctors hope to eventually develop treatments to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
But now, doctors in the ophthalmology department of the Samson Assuta-Ashdod University Hospital suggest a much simpler way to diagnose Alzheimer’s – by looking for beta-amyloid plaques and abnormal tau proteins in the retina of the eye. The advantage is the accessibility of the retina for direct visualization by non-invasive means.
The retina is a component of the central nervous system that can easily be accessed by technology used routinely by ophthalmologists, they wrote. Photoreceptors in this “screen” at the back of the eye absorb light and transfer data to the retinal ganglion cell layer. Axons (long, slender nerve fibers) in this layer accumulate along the retinal nerve fiber layer and transfer the data to the brain via the optic nerve connected to the eye.
Since the retina is connected to the brain, it seems that changes in this part of the eye reflect pathological processes in the brain, the authors wrote, including the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Amyloid-beta plaques have been found in the retina of cadavers in autopsies of people who died of Alzheimer’s.
Turmeric is a natural, intensely yellow-colored spice that attaches itself to plaques of amyloid-beta. Ten Alzheimer’s patients and six healthy controls were asked to swallow turmeric capsules. A few days later, their retinas were examined. The yellow spice was found to stick to the retinal cells in Alzheimer’s patients but not in the healthy controls. Other non-invasive tests of the retina – including optical coherence tomography and optical coherence tomography angiography – were also conducted and found to point to the early development of Alzheimer’s, the authors wrote. Still, larger tests must be conducted with these means before they can be implemented clinically. A clear biomarker must also be found in the individual to be sure the patient is developing Alzheimer’s and sent for treatments, they concluded.
The research, just published in the latest issue of Harefuah – the Hebrew-language journal of the Israel Medical Association – was conducted by Drs. Keren Wood of the Samson Assuta Ashdod Hospital and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Idit Maharshak of Wolfson Medical Center in Holon and Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, and Yosef Koronyo and Maya Koranyo-Hamaoui of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.
Source: https://www.jpost.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Alzheimer's, Amyloid beta, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, biomarker, brain, brain cells, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, dementia, Israel Medical Association, optical coherence tomography, optical coherence tomography angiography, PET scans, plaques, proteins, retina, Samson Assuta Ashdod Hospital, tau proteins, Tel Aviv University, Turmeric, Wolfson Medical Center, yellow spice
September 12, 2022
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Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine researchers have shown they can seradicate advanced-stage mesothelioma tumor in mice in just a few days with a treatment combining Rice’s cytokine “drug factory” implants and a checkpoint inhibitor drug.
The researchers administered the drug-producing beads, which are no larger than the head of a pin, next to tumors where they could produce continuous, high doses of interleukin-2 (IL-2), a natural compound that activates white blood cells to fight cancer. The study, published online today in Clinical Cancer Research, is the latest in a string of successes for the drug-factory technology invented in the lab of Rice bioengineer Omid Veiseh, including Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to begin clinical trials of the technology this fall in ovarian cancer patients.
“From the beginning, our objective was to develop a platform therapy that can be used for multiple different types of immune system disorders or different types of cancers,” said Rice graduate student Amanda Nash, who spent several years developing the implant technology with study co-lead author Samira Aghlara-Fotovat, a fellow student in Veiseh’s lab.
The cytokine factories consist of alginate beads loaded with tens of thousands of cells that are genetically engineered to produce natural IL-2, one of two cytokines the FDA has approved for treatment of cancer. The factories are just 1.5 millimeters wide and can be implanted with minimally invasive surgery to deliver high doses of IL-2 directly to tumors. In the mesothelioma study, the beads were placed beside tumors and inside the thin layer of tissue known as the pleura, which covers the lungs and lines the interior wall of the chest.
“I take care of patients who have malignant pleural mesothelioma,” said Dr. Bryan Burt, professor and chief of Baylor’s Division of Thoracic Surgery in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery. “This is a very aggressive malignancy of the lining of the lungs. And it’s very hard to treat completely by surgical resection. In other words, there is often residual disease that is left behind. The treatment of this residual disease with local immunotherapy — the local delivery of relatively high doses of immunotherapy to that pleural space — is a very attractive way to treat this disease.”
Veiseh said the mesothelioma study began when Burt and Baylor surgeon and associate professor Dr. Ravi Ghanta heard about the early results of ovarian cancer animal tests Veiseh’s team was conducting with collaborators at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. In March, Veiseh and MD Anderson collaborators published a study showing IL-2-producing beads could eradicate advanced-stage ovarian and colorectal tumors in mice in less than a week.
“They were really impressed by the preclinical data we had in ovarian cancer,” Veiseh said of Burt and Ghanta. “And they asked the question, ‘Could we actually leverage the same system for mesothelioma?’”
Source: https://blogs.bcm.edu/
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| Tags: alginate, Baylor College, cells, checkpoint inhibitor drug, cytokine, Drug Factory, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, IL-2, IL-2-producing beads, implants, interleukin-2, local immunotherapy, lung cancer, mesothelioma tumor, ovarian cancer, pleura, Rice University, tissue, tumors, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, white blood cells
September 9, 2022
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Treatment of cancer is a long-term process because remnants of living cancer cells often evolve into aggressive forms and become untreatable. Hence, treatment plans often involve multiple drug combinations and/or radiation therapy in order to prevent cancer relapse. To combat the variety of cancer cell types, modern drugs have been developed to target specific biochemical processes that are unique within each cell type.
However, cancer cells are highly adaptive and able to develop mechanisms to avoid the effects of the treatment.
“We want to prevent such adaptation by invading the main pillar of cellular life—how cells breathe—that means take up oxygen—and thus produce chemical energy for growth,” says David Ng, group leader at the MPI-P.
The research team produced a synthetic drug that travels into cells where it reacts to conditions found inside and triggers a chemical process. This allows the drug’s molecules to bind together and form tiny hairs that are a thousand times thinner than human hair. “These hairs are fluorescent, so you can look at them directly with a microscope as they form,” says Zhixuan Zhou, an Alexander-von-Humboldt-fellow and first author of the paper.
The scientists monitored the oxygen consumption in different cell types and found that the hairs stop all of them from converting oxygen into ATP, a molecule that is responsible for energy delivery in cells. The process worked even for those cells derived from untreatable metastatic cancer. As a result, the cells die rapidly within four hours. After some more years of research, the scientists hope that they can develop a new method to treat up-to-now untreatable cancer.
Weil, Ng and colleagues have shown an exciting outcome under controlled laboratory culture and will continue to unravel deeper insights on the basis of how these tiny hairs prevent the conversion of oxygen to chemical energy. With further development, these objects could in the future possibly also be manipulated to control other cellular processes to address other important diseases.
They have published their results in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Source: https://phys.org/
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| Tags: Alexander-von-Humboldt, ATP, cancer, cancerous cells, drug, energy, oxygen consumption, radiation therapy, relapse, untreatable metastatic cancer
September 8, 2022
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A Band-Aid® adhesive bandage is an effective treatment for stopping external bleeding from skin wounds, but an equally viable option for internal bleeding does not yet exist. Surgical glues are often used inside the body instead of traditional wound closure techniques like stitches, staples, and clips because they reduce the patient’s time in the hospital and lower the risk of secondary injury/damage at the wound site. An effective surgical glue needs to be strong, flexible, non-toxic, and able to accommodate movement, yet there are no adhesives currently available that have all of those properties. Researchers at the Wyss Institute (Harvard University) have developed a new super-strong hydrogel adhesive inspired by the glue secreted by a common slug that is biocompatible, flexible, and can stick to dynamically moving tissues even in the presence of blood.
The hydrogel itself is a hybrid of two different types of polymers: a seaweed extract called alginate that is used to thicken food, and polyacrylamide, which is the main material in soft contact lenses. When these relatively weak polymers become entangled with each other, they create a molecular network that demonstrates unprecedented toughness and resilience for hydrogel materials – on par with the body’s natural cartilage. When combined with an adhesive layer containing positively-charged polymer molecules (chitosan), the resulting hybrid material is able to bind to tissues stronger than any other available adhesive, stretch up to 20 times its initial length, and attach to wet tissue surfaces undergoing dynamic movement (e.g., a beating heart).
Studies of the hydrogel adhesive demonstrated that it is capable of withstanding three times the amount of tension that disrupts the best current medical adhesives, maintaining its stability and adhesion when implanted into rats for two weeks, and sealing a hole in a pig heart that was subjected to tens of thousands of cycles of pumping. Additionally, it caused no tissue damage or adhesions to surrounding tissues when applied to a liver hemorrhage in mice.
The hydrogel adhesive has numerous potential applications in the medical field, either as a patch that can be cut to desired sizes and applied to many tissues including bone, cartilage, tendon, or pleura, or as an injectable solution for deeper injuries. It can also be used to attach medical devices to their target structures, such as an actuator to support heart function. While the current iteration is designed to be a permanent structure, it could be made to biodegrade over time as the body heals from injury.
Source: https://wyss.harvard.edu/
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| Tags: adhesive bandage, alginate, Band-Aid®, biocompatible, blood, bone, cartilage, chitosan, clips, external bleeding, glue, Harvard University, hydrogel adhesive, internal bleeding, pleura, polyacrylamide, polymers, skin wounds, staples, stitches, Surgical glues, tendon, tissues, Wyss Institute
September 7, 2022
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Evolutionary chromosomal changes may take a million years in nature, but researchers are now reporting a novel technique enabling programmable chromosome fusion that has successfully produced mice with genetic changes that occur on a million-year evolutionary scale in the laboratory. The result may provide critical insights into how rearrangements of chromosomes—the tidy packages of organized genes, provided in equal number from each parent, which align and trade or blend traits to produce offspring—influence evolution.
In results published today in Science, the researchers reveal that chromosome-level engineering can be achieved in mammals, and they successfully derived a laboratory house mouse with novel and sustainable karyotype, providing critical insight into how chromosomal rearrangements may influence evolution.
“The laboratory house mouse has maintained a standard 40-chromosome karyotype—or the full picture of an organism’s chromosomes—after more than 100 years of artificial breeding,” said co-first author Li Zhikun, researcher in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Zoology and the State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology. “Over longer time scales, however, karyotype changes caused by chromosome rearrangements are common. Rodents have 3.2 to 3.5 rearrangements per million years, whereas primates have 1.6.”
Such small changes may have big impacts, according to Li. In primates, the 1.6 changes are the difference between humans and gorillas. Gorillas have two separate chromosomes whereas in humans they are fused, and a translocation between ancestor human chromosomes produced two different chromosomes in gorillas. At an individual level, fusions or translocations can lead to missing or extra chromosomes or even to such diseases as childhood leukemia.
https://phys.org/news/
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| Tags: CAS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, chromosomes, genes, karyotype, leukemia
September 6, 2022
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Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have created a new COVID-19 therapeutic that could one day make treating SARS-CoV-2 infections as easy as using a nasal spray for allergies. The therapeutic uses short snippets of synthetic DNA to gum up the genetic machinery that allows SARS-CoV-2 to replicate within the body.
In a new study published online in the journal Nature Communications, the team shows that these short snippets, called antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), are highly effective at preventing the virus from replicating in human cells. When administered in the nose, these ASOs are also effective at preventing and treating COVID-19 infection in mice and hamsters.
“Vaccines are making a huge difference, but vaccines are not universal, and there is still a tremendous need for other approaches,” said Anders Näär, a professor of metabolic biology in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology (NST) at UC Berkeley and senior author of the paper. “A nasal spray that is cheaply available everywhere and that could prevent someone from getting infected or prevent serious disease could be immensely helpful.”
Because the ASO treatment targets a portion of the viral genome that is highly conserved among different variants, it is effective against all SARS-CoV-2 “variants of concern” in human cells and in animal models. It is also chemically stable and relatively inexpensive to produce at large scale, making it ideal for treating COVID-19 infections in areas of the world that do not have access to electricity or refrigeration.
If the treatment proves to be safe and effective in humans, the ASO technology could be readily modified to target other RNA viruses. The research team is already searching for a way to use this to disrupt influenza viruses, which also have pandemic potential.
“If we can design ASOs that target entire viral families, then when a new pandemic emerges, as long as we know which family the virus belongs to, we could use the nasally delivered ASOs to suppress the pandemic in its early stages,” said study first author Chi Zhu, a postdoctoral scholar in NST at UC Berkeley. “That’s the beauty of this new therapeutic.”
Source: https://news.berkeley.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: antisense oligonucleotides, ASOs, Berkeley, cells, COVID-19, genome, influenza, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, pandemic, RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2, UC Berkeley, University of California, variants, virus
September 5, 2022
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The growing list of “firsts” for Perseverance, NASA’s newest six-wheeled robot on the Martian surface, includes converting some of the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen. A toaster-size, experimental instrument aboard Perseverance called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) accomplished the task. The test took place April 20, the 60th Martian day, or sol, since the mission landed Feb. 18. While the technology demonstration is just getting started, it could pave the way for science fiction to become science fact – isolating and storing oxygen on Mars to help power rockets that could lift astronauts off the planet’s surface. Such devices also might one day provide breathable air for astronauts themselves. MOXIE is an exploration technology investigation – as is the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) weather station – and is sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.
“This is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for STMD. “MOXIE has more work to do, but the results from this technology demonstration are full of promise as we move toward our goal of one day seeing humans on Mars. Oxygen isn’t just the stuff we breathe. Rocket propellant depends on oxygen, and future explorers will depend on producing propellant on Mars to make the trip home.” For rockets or astronauts, oxygen is key, said MOXIE’s principal investigator, Michael Hecht of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory.
To burn its fuel, a rocket must have more oxygen by weight. Getting four astronauts off the Martian surface on a future mission would require approximately 15,000 pounds (7 metric tons) of rocket fuel and 55,000 pounds (25 metric tons) of oxygen. In contrast, astronauts living and working on Mars would require far less oxygen to breathe. “The astronauts who spend a year on the surface will maybe use one metric ton between them,” Hecht said.
Hauling 25 metric tons of oxygen from Earth to Mars would be an arduous task. Transporting a one-ton oxygen converter – a larger, more powerful descendant of MOXIE that could produce those 25 tons – would be far more economical and practical. Mars’ atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide. MOXIE works by separating oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules, which are made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. A waste product, carbon monoxide, is emitted into the Martian atmosphere. The conversion process requires high levels of heat to reach a temperature of approximately 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit (800 Celsius). To accommodate this, the MOXIE unit is made with heat-tolerant materials. These include 3D-printed nickel alloy parts, which heat and cool the gases flowing through it, and a lightweight aerogel that helps hold in the heat. A thin gold coating on the outside of MOXIE reflects infrared heat, keeping it from radiating outward and potentially damaging other parts of Perseverance.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/
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| Tags: astronauts, carbon dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, infrared heat, Mars, Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MEDA, MOXIE, NASA, oxygen, Perseverance, robot, Space Technology Mission Directorate, STMD
September 2, 2022
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An Israeli study has eliminated glioblastoma, the most deadly brain tumors, in mice by identifying and destroying their “power source.” The Tel Aviv University scientists behind the peer-reviewed research are now working on identifying drugs to replicate the effect in humans. They hope to find an existing drug that may work and then repurpose it, which they say could happen within two years if things go smoothly.
The method is basically to “starve” glioblastoma tumors by removing their source of energy, said brain immunologist Dr. Lior Mayo, the lead author of the study. He told The Times of Israel that normally, scientists try to attack tumors directly, for example with chemotherapy. “Instead, we decided to ask if there’s anything we can change in the tumor’s environment that could harm it,” he explained.
Astrocytes are brain cells that are so called because they look like stars. Glioblastoma tumors shifts the surrounding astrocytes to an unusually active state. Mayo, and his PhD students Adi Tessler and Rita Perelroizen, wanted to know what the astrocytes do in relation to the tumor. Using genetic modification, he could produce mice with glioblastoma tumors, and then remove all astrocytes from around the tumor.
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An image from the lab of Dr. Lior Mayo showing a glioblastoma tumor in white, surrounded by astrocytes in blue
“We found that when we did this, the tumors vanished and stayed away for as long as we repressed the astrocytes,” Mayo said. “In fact, even when we stopped suppressing the astrocytes, some 85 percent of the mice stayed in remission. However, among the control group, in which all astrocytes remained, all mice died.”
In the study, published in the journal Brain, the scientists suggest “that targeting astrocyte immunometabolic signaling may be useful in treating this uniformly lethal brain tumor.”
Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/
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| Tags: astrocytes, brain tumor, cells, chemotherapy, glioblastoma tumors, Tel Aviv University
September 1, 2022
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A new experimental treatment could help treat end-stage liver disease – by growing tiny new livers elsewhere in the patient’s bodies. The technique, pioneered by cell therapy company LyGenesis, is due to begin human clinical trials in the next few weeks. The liver has a powerful regenerative capacity, able to repair itself from the constant damage it sustains as it works to rid the body of toxins. But alcohol intake or an unhealthy diet can impair that ability and lead to liver disease, the end stages of which can require liver transplants.
But the team at LyGenesis has been working on a creative alternative that would be much less invasive. Rather than replacing the liver, the technique would involve growing entirely new ones elsewhere in the body – mini-livers that can perform the same vital functions.
The process involves injecting healthy liver cells, taken from donated organs, into the recipient’s lymph nodes. There, they multiply and grow into functioning mini versions that can support the work of the remaining cells in the original liver. Previous tests in mice, pigs and dogs showed that the treatment improved their liver function, and can save the lives of many animals that would otherwise succumb to liver failure.
And now LyGenesis is preparing to test the technique in humans for the first time, in a phase 2a clinical trial. Beginning in the next few weeks, 12 adults with end-stage liver disease (ESLD) will receive batches of healthy liver cells. These will be delivered via endoscope and injected directly into the lymph nodes.
The trial participants will be split into three groups of four that receive different doses – either 50 million, 150 million or 250 million cells. It’s thought that for every 50 million cells a patient receives, they will grow one mini liver, meaning the highest dose group could end up with five extra livers. The LyGenesis team will monitor the patients for a year afterwards, assessing the effectiveness and safety of the treatment at the different doses.
Patients will need to receive immune-suppressing drugs to prevent their bodies rejecting the “foreign” mini-livers, much the same as those who currently receive whole organ transplants. However,
Source: https://newatlas.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Cell Therapy, diet, end-stage liver disease, ESLD, immune-suppressing drugs, liver cells, LyGenesis, lymph nodes, regeneration, toxins, transplant
August 31, 2022
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Long life, de-aging, and immortality are some of the concepts that humans keep fiddling with. But, so far, there have been no answers that could unlock the secret of immortality, if it exists. Scientists have now turned for answers to the immortal jellyfish, a creature capable of repeatedly reverting into a younger state.
Spanish researchers have managed to decipher the genome of the immortal jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii, and have defined various genomic keys that contribute to extending its longevity to the point of avoiding its death. Led by Dr. Carlos López-Otín of the University of Oviedo, the team mapped the genetic sequence of the unique jellyfish in hopes of unearthing the secret to their unique longevity and finding new clues to human aging. The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They sequenced Turritopsis dohrnii, together with that of its sister Turritopsis rubra to identify genes that are amplified or have different variant characteristics between the two.Turritopsis rubra is a close genetic cousin that lacks the ability to rejuvenate after sexual reproduction. They unraveled that T. dohrnii has variations in its genome that may make it better at copying and repairing DNA and they appear to be better at maintaining the ends of chromosomes called telomeres. The telomere length has been shown to shorten with age in humans.
“Rather than having a single key to rejuvenation and immortality, the various mechanisms found in our work would act synergistically as a whole, thus orchestrating the process to ensure the successful rejuvenation of the immortal jellyfish,” Maria Pascual-Torner, first author of the article said in a statement. ”
Like other types of jellyfish, the T. dohrnii goes through a two-part life cycle, living on the sea floor during an asexual phase, where its chief role is to stay alive during times of food scarcity. When conditions are right, jellyfish reproduce sexually. Although many types of jellyfish have some capacity to reverse aging and revert to a larval stage, most lose this ability once they reach sexual maturity, the authors wrote. Not so for T. dohrnii.
Meanwhile, Carlos López-Otín, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Asturian university said, “This work does not pursue the search for strategies to achieve the dreams of human immortality that some announce, but to understand the keys and limits of the fascinating cellular plasticity that allows some organisms to be able to travel back in time. From this knowledge, we hope to find better answers to the numerous diseases associated with aging that overwhelm us today“.
Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: death, DNA, genes, genome, immortality, Jellyfish, telomeres, Turritopsis dohrnii, University of Oviedo
August 30, 2022
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Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have discovered that increasing the production of new neurons in mice with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) rescues the animals’ memory defects. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), shows that new neurons can incorporate into the neural circuits that store memories and restore their normal function, suggesting that boosting neuron production could be a viable strategy to treat AD patients.
New neurons are produced from neural stem cells via a process known as neurogenesis. Previous studies have shown that neurogenesis is impaired in both AD patients and laboratory mice carrying genetic mutations linked to AD, particularly in a region of the brain called the hippocampus that is crucial for memory acquisition and retrieval.
Boosting neurogenesis increases the number of newly formed neurons involved in storing and retrieving memories (arrows) in the hoppocampus of mice with Alzheimer’s
“However, the role of newly formed neurons in memory formation, and whether defects in neurogenesis contribute to the cognitive impairments associated with AD, is unclear,” says Professor Orly Lazarov of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in the University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine.
In the new JEM study, Lazarov and colleagues boosted neurogenesis in AD mice by genetically enhancing the survival of neuronal stem cells. The researchers deleted Bax, a gene that plays a major role in neuronal stem cell death, ultimately leading to the maturation of more new neurons. Increasing the production of new neurons in this way restored the animals’ performance in two different tests measuring spatial recognition and contextual memory.
By fluorescently labeling neurons activated during memory acquisition and retrieval, the researchers determined that, in the brains of healthy mice, the neural circuits involved in storing memories include many newly formed neurons alongside older, more mature neurons. These memory-stowing circuits contain fewer new neurons in AD mice, but the integration of newly formed neurons was restored when neurogenesis was increased.
Further analyses of the neurons forming the memory-storing circuits revealed that boosting neurogenesis also increases the number of dendritic spines, which are structures in synapses known to be critical for memory formation, and restores a normal pattern of neuronal gene expression.
Lazarov and colleagues confirmed the importance of newly formed neurons for memory formation by specifically inactivating them in the brains of AD mice. This reversed the benefits of boosting neurogenesis, preventing any improvement in the animals’ memory.
“Our study is the first to show that impairments in hippocampal neurogenesis play a role in the memory deficits associated with AD by decreasing the availability of immature neurons for memory formation,” Lazarov says. “Taken together, our results suggest that augmenting neurogenesis may be of therapeutic value in AD patients.”
Source: https://www.eurekalert.org/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Alzheimer's, Bax, brain, dendritic spines, gene, hippocampus, memories, neural circuit, neural stem cells, neurogenesis, neuronal gene expression, neurons, synapses, University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine.
August 29, 2022
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Over-the-counter pain relievers, physical therapy, steroid injections — some people have tried it all and are still dealing with knee pain. Often knee pain comes from the progressive wear and tear of cartilage known as osteoarthritis, which affects nearly one in six adults — 867 million people — worldwide. For those who want to avoid replacing the entire knee joint, there may soon be another option that could help patients get back on their feet fast, pain-free, and stay that way.
Writing in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, a Duke University-led team says they have created the first gel-based cartilage substitute that is even stronger and more durable than the real thing. Mechanical testing reveals that the Duke team’s hydrogel — a material made of water-absorbing polymers — can be pressed and pulled with more force than natural cartilage, and is three times more resistant to wear and tear. Implants made of the material are currently being developed by Sparta Biomedical and tested in sheep. Researchers are gearing up to begin clinical trials in humans next year.
Duke researchers have developed a gel-based cartilage substitute to relieve achy knees that’s even stronger and more durable than the real thing. Clinical trials to start next year
“If everything goes according to plan, the clinical trial should start as soon as April 2023,” said Duke chemistry professor Benjamin Wiley, who led the research along with Duke mechanical engineering and materials science professor Ken Gall.
To make this material, the Duke team took thin sheets of cellulose fibers and infused them with a polymer called polyvinyl alcohol — a viscous goo consisting of stringy chains of repeating molecules — to form a gel. The cellulose fibers act like the collagen fibers in natural cartilage, Wiley said — they give the gel strength when stretched. The polyvinyl alcohol helps it return to its original shape. The result is a Jello-like material, 60% water, which is supple yet surprisingly strong.
Natural cartilage can withstand a whopping 5,800 to 8,500 pounds per inch of tugging and squishing, respectively, before reaching its breaking point. Their lab-made version is the first hydrogel that can handle even more. It is 26% stronger than natural cartilage in tension, something like suspending seven grand pianos from a key ring, and 66% stronger in compression — which would be like parking a car on a postage stamp. “It’s really off the charts in terms of hydrogel strength,” Wiley said.
The team has already made hydrogels with remarkable properties. In 2020, they reported that they had created the first hydrogel strong enough for knees, which feel the force of two to three times body weight with each step.
Source: https://today.duke.edu/
AND
https://www.spartabiomedical.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: cartilage, cellulose fibers, collagen fibers, COMPRESSION, Duke University, gel, hydrogel, Jello-like material, knees, Osteoarthritis, pain, polymer, polyvinyl alcohol, Sparta Biomedical, steroid, tension, water-absorbing polymers
August 29, 2022
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New eye drops can limit the use for reading glasses. Vuity has just been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and local ophthalmologists say it can be a life-changer. The drops are meant for people dealing with Presbyopia, an age-related eye issue that causes blurry vision.
“We all know the reading glasses are annoying,” said Dr. Ella Faktorovich, an ophthalmologist with Pacific Vision Institute. “Within 15 minutes you can see your computer, you can see your phone so you can really improve the range of vision. I think it is huge.” She says the drops target the focusing mechanism in the eye. The drops shrink the pupils and increase focus on theeye.
“There are many kinds of this medicine in trials, but this is the first to be approved,” she said. “It is pretty remarkable.” It can help people like Lovester Law, who is currently writing a book. He says he spends hours looking at a screen to write. “After I read too much or write to long, I just have to close my eyes and relax,” he explained.
“If we live long enough our eyes are going to age, they are not going to be like they used to be.” People who want the drops will have to consult an eye doctor, because they are only available through a prescription. Doctors at UCSF say this breakthrough can be a catalyst for future eye treatment. “The data we have shows that it really really works,” stated Julie Schallhorn, Associate Professor of ophthalmology at UCSF. “It is an exciting time to be in this field, and an exciting time for our patients.“
The FDA approval of VUITY was based on data from two pivotal phase 3 clinical studies, GEMINI 1 and GEMINI 2, which evaluated the efficacy, safety and tolerability of VUITY for the treatment of presbyopia.
Source: https://news.abbvie.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: drops, eye, FDA, focus, Food and Drug Administration, Gemini 1, Gemini 2, ophthalmologists, Pacific Vision Institute, presbyopia, pupils, reading glasses, UCSF, vision, Vuity
August 26, 2022
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Scientists from the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) have developed a contact lens that can capture and detect exosomes, nanometer-sized vesicles found in bodily secretions which have the potential for being diagnostic cancer biomarkers. The lens was designed with microchambers bound to antibodies that can capture exosomes found in tears. This antibody- conjugated signaling microchamber contact lens (ABSM-CL) can be stained for detection with nanoparticle-tagged specific antibodies for selective visualization. This offers a potential platform for cancer pre-screening and a supportive diagnostic tool that is easy, rapid, sensitive, cost-effective, and non-invasive.
Exosomes are formed within most cells and secreted into many bodily fluids, such as plasma, saliva, urine, and tears. Once thought to be the dumping grounds for unwanted materials from their cells of origin, it is now known that exosomes can transport different biomolecules between cells. It has also been shown that there is a wealth of surface proteins on exosomes – some that are common to all exosomes and others that are increased in response to cancer, viral infections, or injury. In addition, exosomes derived from tumors can strongly influence tumor regulation, progression, and metastasis.
Because of these capabilities, there has been much interest in using exosomes for cancer diagnosis and prognosis/treatment prediction. However, this has been hampered by the difficulty in isolating exosomes in sufficient quantity and purity for this purpose. Current methods involve tedious and time-consuming ultracentrifuge and density gradients, lasting at least ten hours to complete.
Source: https://terasaki.org/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: ABSM-CL, antibodies, biomarkers, cancer, cells, contact lens, exosomes, nanoparticle, plasma, prognosis, saliva, tears, Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, TIBI, urine, vesicles
August 25, 2022
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Some of the first trials to test whether reprogrammed stem cells can repair diseased organs have begun to report positive results. Research teams involved in the studies, all based in Japan, say they provide early hints that the hotly anticipated technology works. But many researchers outside the country are cautious about overstating the significance of the trials, saying they were small and the results have yet to be peer reviewed.
Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are those that have been reprogrammed from mature cells — often taken from the skin — into an embryonic-like state. From there, they can then turn into any cell type and be used to repair damaged organs.
In January, researchers reported in a preprint1 that the first person in Japan given a transplant of heart-muscle cells made from reprogrammed stem cells had experienced improved heart function following the procedure. Then, in April, another group announced that several people’s vision had improved after their diseased corneas were transplanted with corneal cells made from reprogrammed stem cells — a world first.
Ongoing trials are “delivering encouraging first insights into the evolution of iPS-cell-based therapies, from lab to patient”, says Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmermann, a pharmacologist at the University Medical Centre Göttingen in Germany.
The biggest impact of the iPS-cell trials in Japan so far is that they “give people confidence all over the world that it is doable”, says Kapil Bharti, a translational stem-cell researcher at the US National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
The iPS-cell field is hugely popular in Japan, in large part because it was a local scientist, Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, who discovered how to make the cells. Expectations for the potential uses of iPS cells soared in 2012, when Yamanaka won the medicine Nobel prize for his 2006 discovery. In 2013, the Japanese government announced that it would pour ¥110 billion (US$814 million today) over the next ten years into regenerative medicine.
In that time, Japanese scientists have launched at least ten trials in people. These have largely shown that the technology is safe, but have yet to establish that it has a beneficial effect. Now, public enthusiasm has waned, which threatens future government funding, says Masayo Takahashi, an ophthalmologist and president of the cell-therapy company Vision Care in Kobe, Japan.
“iPS-cell technology has only been around for 16 years. And bringing it into clinical testing has happened unbelievably fast,” says Zimmermann. “The challenge is that this is all happening under high public attention.”
Source: https://www.nature.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Induced Pluripotent Stem, iPS cells, Kyoto University, National Eye Institute, regenerative medicine, reprogrammed stem cells, University Medical Centre Göttingen, Vision Care, Yamanaka
August 24, 2022
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 16 approved the first online visual acuity test made by the telehealth company Visibly. This clearance will allow adults ages 22 to 40 to evaluate their vision from the convenience of their homes. The FDA approval may increase access for people who are in need of a renewed prescription for glasses or contacts but cannot travel to an appointment. However, it’s not a replacement for an in-person eye exam.
“During the pandemic, a lot of people delayed elective health care that was really important,” said Yuna Rapoport, MD, MPH, a board-certified ophthalmologist at Manhattan Eye. “Overall, this remote vision test is helpful. If you really want an accurate prescription, and there’s a way to get to a doctor’s office, I would still say that that’s a better option.”
According to Visibly, the online visual test is best for “people whose vision has not changed, have recently completed a comprehensive eye exam,” and are looking to renew an expired prescription. The test is not a substitute for, nor does it provide screening or diagnosis for eye health or eye diseases, which should be performed by a licensed provider, according to the FDA.
Paul Foley, Visibly’s chief operating officer, said in a press release that the online vision test will increase at-home use and complement in-person eye care. The test takes about six minutes to complete and 90% of the prescriptions are issued within 24 hours, according to the company.
Source: https://www.govisibly.com/
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https://www.verywellhealth.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: contacts, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, glasses, online visual acuity test, prescription, renewed prescription, telehealth, Visibly, visual acuity test
August 23, 2022
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Parkinson’s disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose as it relies primarily on the appearance of motor symptoms such as tremors, stiffness, and slowness, but these symptoms often appear several years after the disease onset. Now, Dina Katabi, the Thuan (1990) and Nicole Pham Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at MIT and principal investigator at MIT Jameel Clinic, and her team have developed an artificial intelligence model that can detect Parkinson’s just from reading a person’s breathing patterns.
The tool in question is a neural network, a series of connected algorithms that mimic the way a human brain works, capable of assessing whether someone has Parkinson’s from their nocturnal breathing — i.e., breathing patterns that occur while sleeping. The neural network, which was trained by MIT PhD student Yuzhe Yang and postdoc Yuan Yuan, is also able to discern the severity of someone’s Parkinson’s disease and track the progression of their disease over time.
The MIT researchers demonstrated that the artificial intelligence assessment of Parkinson’s can be done every night at home while the person is asleep and without touching their body. To do so, the team developed a device with the appearance of a home Wi-Fi router, but instead of providing internet access, the device emits radio signals, analyzes their reflections off the surrounding environment, and extracts the subject’s breathing patterns without any bodily contact. The breathing signal is then fed to the neural network to assess Parkinson’s in a passive manner, and there is zero effort needed from the patient and caregiver.
“A relationship between Parkinson’s and breathing was noted as early as 1817, in the work of Dr. James Parkinson. This motivated us to consider the potential of detecting the disease from one’s breathing without looking at movements,” Katabi says. “Some medical studies have shown that respiratory symptoms manifest years before motor symptoms, meaning that breathing attributes could be promising for risk assessment prior to Parkinson’s diagnosis.”
Yang is first author on a new paper describing the work, published today in Nature Medicine. Katabi, who is also an affiliate of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and director of the Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing, is the senior author. They are joined by Yuan and 12 colleagues from Rutgers University, the University of Rochester Medical Center, the Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Boston University College of Health and Rehabilition.
Source: https://news.mit.edu/
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August 22, 2022
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Ultrasound imaging is a safe and noninvasive window into the body’s workings, providing clinicians with live images of a patient’s internal organs. To capture these images, trained technicians manipulate ultrasound wands and probes to direct sound waves into the body. These waves reflect back out to produce high-resolution images of a patient’s heart, lungs, and other deep organs.
Currently, ultrasound imaging requires bulky and specialized equipment available only in hospitals and doctor’s offices. But a new design by MIT engineers might make the technology as wearable and accessible as buying Band-Aids at the pharmacy. In a paper appearing today in Science, the engineers present the design for a new ultrasound sticker — a stamp-sized device that sticks to skin and can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours.
The researchers applied the stickers to volunteers and showed the devices produced live, high-resolution images of major blood vessels and deeper organs such as the heart, lungs, and stomach. The stickers maintained a strong adhesion and captured changes in underlying organs as volunteers performed various activities, including sitting, standing, jogging, and biking. The current design requires connecting the stickers to instruments that translate the reflected sound waves into images. The researchers point out that even in their current form, the stickers could have immediate applications: For instance, the devices could be applied to patients in the hospital, similar to heart-monitoring EKG stickers, and could continuously image internal organs without requiring a technician to hold a probe in place for long periods of time.
If the devices can be made to operate wirelessly — a goal the team is currently working toward — the ultrasound stickers could be made into wearable imaging products that patients could take home from a doctor’s office or even buy at a pharmacy.
“We envision a few patches adhered to different locations on the body, and the patches would communicate with your cellphone, where AI algorithms would analyze the images on demand,” says the study’s senior author, Xuanhe Zhao, professor of mechanical engineering and civil at MIT. “We believe we’ve opened a new era of wearable imaging: With a few patches on your body, you could see your internal organs.”
The study also includes lead authors Chonghe Wang and Xiaoyu Chen, and co-authors Liu Wang, Mitsutoshi Makihata, and Tao Zhao at MIT, along with Hsiao-Chuan Liu of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Source: https://news.mit.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: : Blood vessels, heart, internal organs, lungs, Mayo Clinic, MIT, skin, sound waves, ultrasound imaging, ultrasound stickers
August 19, 2022
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Wearable sensors are ubiquitous thanks to wireless technology that enables a person’s glucose concentrations, blood pressure, heart rate, and activity levels to be transmitted seamlessly from sensor to smartphone for further analysis. Most wireless sensors today communicate via embedded Bluetooth chips that are themselves powered by small batteries. But these conventional chips and power sources will likely be too bulky for next-generation sensors, which are taking on smaller, thinner, more flexible forms.
Now MIT engineers have devised a new kind of wearable sensor that communicates wirelessly without requiring onboard chips or batteries. Their design, detailed today in the journal Science, opens a path toward chip-free wireless sensors. The team’s sensor design is a form of electronic skin, or “e-skin” — a flexible, semiconducting film that conforms to the skin like electronic Scotch tape. The heart of the sensor is an ultrathin, high-quality film of gallium nitride, a material that is known for its piezoelectric properties, meaning that it can both produce an electrical signal in response to mechanical strain and mechanically vibrate in response to an electrical impulse. The researchers found they could harness gallium nitride’s two-way piezoelectric properties and use the material simultaneously for both sensing and wireless communication.
In their new study, the team produced pure, single-crystalline samples of gallium nitride, which they paired with a conducting layer of gold to boost any incoming or outgoing electrical signal. They showed that the device was sensitive enough to vibrate in response to a person’s heartbeat, as well as the salt in their sweat, and that the material’s vibrations generated an electrical signal that could be read by a nearby receiver. In this way, the device was able to wirelessly transmit sensing information, without the need for a chip or battery.
“Chips require a lot of power, but our device could make a system very light without having any chips that are power-hungry,” says the study’s corresponding author, Jeehwan Kim, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and of materials science, and a principal investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics. “You could put it on your body like a bandage, and paired with a wireless reader on your cellphone, you could wirelessly monitor your pulse, sweat, and other biological signals.”
Jeehwan Kim’s group previously developed a technique, called remote epitaxy, that they have employed to quickly grow and peel away ultrathin, high-quality semiconductors from wafers coated with graphene. Using this technique, they have fabricated and explored various flexible, multifunctional electronic films. In their new study, the engineers used the same technique to peel away ultrathin single-crystalline films of gallium nitride, which in its pure, defect-free form is a highly sensitive piezoelectric material.
The team looked to use a pure film of gallium nitride as both a sensor and a wireless communicator of surface acoustic waves, which are essentially vibrations across the films. The patterns of these waves can indicate a person’s heart rate, or even more subtly, the presence of certain compounds on the skin, such as salt in sweat.
Source: https://news.mit.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: chip-free wireless sensors, E-skin, electronic skin, film, gallium nitride, gold, graphene, heart rate, MIT, piezoelectric material, remote epitaxy, salt, semiconductors, sensor, smartphone, surface acoustic waves, sweat, vibrations, wireless communicator
August 18, 2022
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A recent study in Nature Scientific Reports found that the VR experience, Isness-D, showed the same effect as a medium dose of LSD or psilocybin on four key indicators. The psychedelic renaissance is upon us, with myriad research showing how substances like psilocybin, LSD, and more aid in mental health conditions like treatment-resistant depression and PTSD. More and more, the curiosity around psychedelics is increasing, with individuals seeing the potential of these mind-bending medicines to overcome perceived limits of the self.
At the same time, technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, posing the question: Could tech like virtual reality provide comparable benefits that psychedelics offer? Evidently the answer is yes, according to a recent study of a new VR experience, Isness-D, made to mirror specific transcendent psychedelic effects.
It all started with creator David Glowacki, who took a steep fall while walking in the mountains 15 years ago. After hitting the ground, he laid there suffocating as blood began leaking into his lungs. During this experience, Glowacki’s field of perception began to shift, peering down at his own body and finding he was made up of balled-up light, MIT Technology Review reports. He said the intensity of the light was related to the extent in which he inhabited his body, though watching the light slowly dim wasn’t frightening—It was transformative, leaking out of his body and around his environment. He took the experience as a signal that his awareness could outlast and transcend his physical body, ultimately bringing him peace.
The Nature study introduction brings up similar sensations from brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor following a left-hemisphere stroke.
“I could no longer define the boundaries of my body. I can’t define where I begin and where I end, because the atoms and molecules of my arm blend with the atoms and molecules of the wall, and all I could detect was this energy… I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of the energy around me. And because I could no longer identify the boundaries of my body, I felt enormous and expansive. I felt at one with all the energy that was, and it was beautiful.”
After his accident, Glowacki approached the experience, which he related to death, with curiosity, attempting to recapture that transcendence. The new technology is designed for groups of four to five, based anywhere in the world. The participants are represented as a cloud of smoke with a ball of light around the location of their heart. The experience features energetic coalescence, meaning that participants can gather in the same VR landscape and overlap their bodies, making it impossible to tell where one starts and another ends, contributing to a sense of connectedness and ego reduction that psychedelic experiences commonly bring.
Source: https://hightimes.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: brain, connectedness, depression, ego reduction, energetic coalescenc, Isness-D, left-hemisphere stroke, LSD, mental health, psilocybin, psychedelics, PTSD, VR experience
August 17, 2022
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Diabetes is a severe and growing metabolic disorder. It already affects hundreds of thousands of people in Switzerland. A sedentary lifestyle and an excessively rich diet damage the beta cells of the pancreas, promoting the onset of this disease. If detected early enough, its progression could be reversed, but diagnostic tools that allow for early detection are lacking. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) in collaboration with several other scientists, including teams from the HUG, has discovered that a low level of the sugar 1,5-anhydroglucitol in the blood is a sign of a loss in functional beta cells. This molecule, easily identified by a blood test, could be used to identify the development of diabetes in people at risk, before the situation becomes irreversible. These results can be found in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
In Switzerland, almost 500,000 people suffer from diabetes. This serious metabolic disorder is constantly increasing due to the combined effect of a lack of physical activity and an unbalanced diet. If detected early enough at the pre-diabetes stage, progression to an established diabetes can be counteracted by adopting an appropriate lifestyle. Unfortunately, one third of patients already have cardiovascular, renal or neuronal complications at the time of diagnosis, which impacts their life expectancy.
When diabetes starts to develop but no symptoms are yet detectable, part of the beta cells of the pancreas (in green) disappear (right image) compared to a healthy individual (left image). This previously undetectable decrease could be identified by measuring the level of 1,5-anhydroglucitol in the blood
‘‘Identifying the transition from pre-diabetes to diabetes is complex, because the status of the affected cells, which are scattered in very small quantities in the core of an organ located under the liver, the pancreas, is impossible to assess quantitatively by non-invasive investigations. We therefore opted for an alternative strategy: to find a molecule whose levels in the blood would be associated with the functional mass of these beta cells in order to indirectly detect their alteration at the pre-diabetes stage, before the appearance of any symptoms,’’ explains Pierre Maechler, a Professor in the Department of Cell Physiology and Metabolism and in the Diabetes Centre of the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, who led this work.
Several years ago, scientists embarked on the identification of such a molecule able to detect pre-diabetes. The first step was to analyse thousands of molecules in healthy, pre-diabetic and diabetic mouse models. By combining powerful molecular biology techniques with a machine learning system (artificial intelligence), the research team was able to identify, from among thousands of molecules, the one that best reflects a loss of beta cells at the pre-diabetic stage: namely 1,5-anhydroglucitol, a small sugar, whose decrease in blood would indicate a deficit in beta cells.
Source: https://www.unige.ch/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: 1, 5-anhydroglucitol, Artificial Intelligence, beta cells, blood, cardiovascular, diabetes, diet, HUG, identification, life expectancy, machine-learning, metabolic disorder, molecule, neuronal, pre-diabetes, renal, sugar, UNIGE, University of Geneva
August 16, 2022
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A cornea implant made out of collagen gathered from pig skin has restored the vision of 20 volunteers in a landmark pilot study. Pending further testing, the novel bioengineered implant is hoped to improve the vision of millions around the world awaiting difficult and costly cornea transplant surgeries. More than one million people worldwide are diagnosed blind every year due to damaged or diseased corneas. A person’s vision can be easily disrupted when this thin outer layer of tissue surrounding the eye degenerates. A person suffering corneal blindness can have their vision restored by receiving a corneal transplant from a human donor. However, a lack of cornea donors means barely one in 70 people with corneal blindness will ever be able to access a transplant. Plus, the surgical procedure can be complex, amplifying the lack of access to this vision-restoring procedure for people in low– and middle-income countries.
This new research first looked to develop cornea implants that didn’t rely on human donor tissue. Over a decade ago the researchers first demonstrated biosynthetic corneas were effective replacements for donor corneas. But those earlier studies still relied on complex lab-grown human collagen, molded into the shape of corneas. This new study demonstrates the same biosynthetic cornea can be effectively produced using medical-grade collagen sourced from pig skin. Not only is this a cheap and sustainable source of collagen, but improved engineering techniques mean these bioengineered corneas can be safely stored for almost two years, unlike donated human corneas which must be used within two weeks of harvesting.
A pilot study saw bioengineered implants restore the vision of 14 volunteers who were completely blind before the experimental procedure
“The results show that it is possible to develop a biomaterial that meets all the criteria for being used as human implants, which can be mass-produced and stored up to two years and thereby reach even more people with vision problems,” explained Neil Lagali, one of the researchers working on the project. “This gets us around the problem of shortage of donated corneal tissue and access to other treatments for eye diseases.”
The other innovation demonstrated in the study is a new surgical approach for implanting the bioengineered cornea. Instead of needing to surgically remove a patient’s pre-existing cornea, as would be done when transplanting a donor cornea, the new method leaves that tissue intact. Only a small suture is necessary to insert the novel implant.
The new study, published in Nature Biotechnology, describes the results of a pilot trial that tested the implant in 20 volunteers, 14 of whom were completely blind before the experimental procedure. At the two-year follow-up the study reports all 20 volunteers had completely regained their vision and experienced no adverse effects from the surgery.
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: biosynthetic corneas, blind, blindness, collagen, cornea, implant, pig, skin, vision
August 15, 2022
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The discovery of how to shift damaged brain cells from a diseased state into a healthy one presents a potential new path to treating Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, according to a new study from researchers at UC San Francisco (UCSF). The research focuses on microglia, cells that stabilize the brain by clearing out damaged neurons and the protein plaques often associated with dementia and other brain diseases. These cells are understudied, despite the fact that changes in them are known to play a significant role Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases, said Martin Kampmann, PhD, senior author on the study, which appears in Nature Neuroscience.
Microglia (green) derived from human stem cells
“Now, using a new CRISPR method we developed, we can uncover how to actually control these microglia, to get them to stop doing toxic things and go back to carrying out their vitally important cleaning jobs,” Kampmann said. “This capability presents the opportunity for an entirely new type of therapeutic approach.”
Most of the genes known to increase the risk for Alzheimer’s disease act through microglial cells. Thus, these cells have a significant impact on how such neurodegenerative diseases play out, said Kampmann. Microglia act as the brain’s immune system. Ordinary immune cells can’t cross the blood-brain barrier, so it’s the task of healthy microglia to clear out waste and toxins, keeping neurons functioning at their best. When microglia start losing their way, the result can be brain inflammation and damage to neurons and the networks they form. Under some conditions, for example, microglia will start removing synapses between neurons. While this is a normal part of brain development in a person’s childhood and adolescent years, it can have disastrous effects in the adult brain.
Over the past five years or so, many studies have observed and profiled these varying microglial states but haven’t been able to characterize the genetics behind them. Kampmann and his team wanted to identify exactly which genes are involved in specific states of microglial activity, and how each of those states are regulated. With that knowledge, they could then flip genes on and off, setting wayward cells back on the right track. Accomplishing that task required surmounting fundamental obstacles that have prevented researchers from controlling gene expression in these cells. For example, microglia are very resistant to the most common CRISPR technique, which involves getting the desired genetic material into the cell by using a virus to deliver it. To overcome this, Kampmann’s team coaxed stem cells donated by human volunteers to become microglia and confirmed that these cells function like their ordinary human counterparts. The team then developed a new platform that combines a form of CRISPR, which enables researchers to turn individual genes on and off – and which Kampmann had a significant hand in developing – with readouts of data that indicate functions and states of individual microglia cells.
Through this analysis, Kampmann and his team pinpointed genes that affect the cell’s ability to survive and proliferate, how actively a cell produces inflammatory substances, and how aggressively a cell prunes synapses. And because the scientists had determined which genes control those activities, they were able to reset the genes and flip the diseased cell to a healthy state.
Source: https://www.ucsf.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Alzheimer's, blood brain barrier, brain cells, CRISPR, dementia, genes, genetics, immune system, inflammation, microglia, neurodegenerative diseases, neurons, protein plaques, synapses, toxins, UC San Francisco, UCSF, WASTE
August 12, 2022
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A University of Minnesota (U OF M) Twin Cities-led team has found that electrical stimulation of the body combined with sound activates the brain’s somatosensory or “tactile” cortex, increasing the potential for using the technique to treat chronic pain and other sensory disorders. The researchers tested the non-invasive technique on animals and are planning clinical trials on humans in the near future. During the study, published in the Journal of Neural Engineering, the researchers played broadband sound while electrically stimulating different parts of the body in guinea pigs. They found that the combination of the two activated neurons in the brain’s somatosensory cortex, which is responsible for touch and pain sensations throughout the body.
While the researchers used needle stimulation in their experiments, one could achieve similar results using electrical stimulation devices, such as nerve stimulation (TENS) units, which are widely available. The researchers hope that their findings will lead to a treatment for chronic pain that’s safer and more accessible than drug approaches.
“Chronic pain is a huge issue for a lot of people, and for most, it’s not sufficiently treatable,” said Cory Gloeckner, lead author on the paper, a Ph.D. alumnus of the U of M Department of Biomedical Engineering and an assistant professor at John Carroll University. “Right now, one of the ways that we try to treat pain is opioids, and we all know that doesn’t work out well for many people. This, on the other hand, is a non-invasive, simple application. It’s not some expensive medical device that you have to buy in order to treat your pain. It’s something that we think would be available to pretty much anyone because of its low cost and simplicity.”
The researchers plan to continue investigating this “multimodal” approach to treating different neurological conditions, potentially integrating music therapy in the future to see how they can further modify the somatosensory cortex.
Source: https://twin-cities.umn.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: brain’s somatosensory, broadband sound, chronic pain, cortex, drug, electric stimulation, Electrical Stimulation, John Carroll University., music therapy, nerve, sound, tactile, TENS, U of M, University of Minnesota
August 11, 2022
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A Chinese micro-nano quantum satellite has entered its planned orbit and is now operational, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), one of its developers, said. It was launched atop a Lijian-1 carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
The low-orbit satellite was designed to conduct real-time quantum key distribution experiments between the satellite and ground station and to carry out technical verification.
The new micro-nano satellite’s weight is about one-sixth the weight of the world’s first quantum satellite, the Chinese satellite Micius, which weighs more than 600 kilograms, according to the USTC. The university said that, based on the quantum technology first seen in Micius, it is clear that more low-cost quantum satellites are needed to realize an efficient, practical and global quantum communication network that can meet the increasing user demand.
The new satellite was jointly developed by Chinese universities and institutions such as the USTC, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Jinan Institute of Quantum Technology. Its launch and in-orbit operations are expected to aid the country’s quantum communication development and promote the improvement of national information security.
https://news.cgtn.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Chinese Academy of Sciences, global quantum communication network, information security, Jinan Institute of Quantum Technology, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Lijian-1 carrier rocket, Micius, nano quantum satellite, real-time quantum key distribution, University of Science and Technology of China, USTC
August 10, 2022
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Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have helped develop a nanobody capable of getting through the tough exterior of brain cells and untangling misshapen proteins that lead to Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, and other neurocognitive disorders. The research, published last month in Nature Communications, was led by Xiaobo Mao, an associate professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, and included scientists at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Their aim was to find a new type of treatment that could specifically target the misshapen proteins, called alpha-synuclein, which tend to clump together and gum up the inner workings of brain cells. Emerging evidence has shown that the alpha-synuclein clumps can spread from the gut or nose to the brain, driving the disease progression.
Nanobodies—miniature versions of antibodies, which are proteins in the blood that help the immune system find and attack foreign pathogens—are natural compounds in the blood of animals such as llamas and sharks and are being studied to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer in humans. In theory, antibodies have the potential to zero in on clumping alpha-synuclein proteins, but have a hard time getting through the outer covering of brain cells. To squeeze through these tough brain cell coatings, the researchers decided to use nanobodies instead. The researchers had to shore up the nanobodies to help them keep stable within a brain cell. To do this, they genetically engineered them to rid them of chemical bonds that typically degrade inside a cell. Tests showed that without the bonds, the nanobody remained stable and was still able to bind to misshapen alpha-synuclein.
The team made seven similar types of nanobodies, known as PFFNBs, that could bind to alpha-synuclein clumps. Of the nanobodies they created, one—PFFNB2—did the best job of glomming onto alpha-synuclein clumps and not single molecules, or monomer of alpha-synuclein, which are not harmful and may have important functions in brain cells. Additional tests in mice showed that the PFFNB2 nanobody cannot prevent alpha-synuclein from collecting into clumps, but it can disrupt and destabilize the structure of existing clumps.
The structure of alpha-synuclein clumps (left) was disrupted by the nanobody PFFNB2. The debris from the disrupted clump is shown on the right.
“Strikingly, we induced PFFNB2 expression in the cortex, and it prevented alpha-synuclein clumps from spreading to the mouse brain’s cortex, the region responsible for cognition, movement, personality, and other high-order processes,” says Ramhari Kumbhar, the co-first author and a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Medicine.
“The success of PFFNB2 in binding harmful alpha-synuclein clumps in increasingly complex environments indicates that the nanobody could be key to helping scientists study these diseases and eventually develop new treatments,” Mao says.
Source: https://hub.jhu.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: alpha-synuclein, Ann Arbor, autoimmune diseases, blood, brain cells, cancer, immune system, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, llamas, misshapen proteins, monomer, nanobody, PFFNB2, PFFNBs, sharks, University of Michigan
August 9, 2022
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It’s a brainy Band-Aid, a smart watch without the watch, and a leap forward for wearable health technologies. Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have developed a flexible, stretchable computing chip that processes information by mimicking the human brain. The device, described in the journal Matter, aims to change the way health data is processed.
“With this work we’ve bridged wearable technology with artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a powerful device which can analyze health data right on our own bodies,” said Sihong Wang, a materials scientist and Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering.
Today, getting an in-depth profile about your health requires a visit to a hospital or clinic. In the future, Wang said, people’s health could be tracked continuously by wearable electronics that can detect disease even before symptoms appear. Unobtrusive, wearable computing devices are one step toward making this vision a reality.
The future of healthcare that Wang—and many others—envision includes wearable biosensors to track complex indicators of health including levels of oxygen, sugar, metabolites and immune molecules in people’s blood. One of the keys to making these sensors feasible is their ability to conform to the skin. As such skin-like wearable biosensors emerge and begin collecting more and more information in real-time, the analysis becomes exponentially more complex. A single piece of data must be put into the broader perspective of a patient’s history and other health parameters.
Source: https://pme.uchicago.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, blood, brain, brainy Band-Aid, datas, immune, metabolites, oxygen, PME, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, skin, sugar, University of Chicago, wearable biosensor, wearable health technologies
August 8, 2022
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Residing within the human gut are trillions of bacteria and other microorganisms that can impact a variety of chronic human ailments, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, cancer, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Numerous diseases are associated with imbalance or dysfunction in gut microbiome. Even in diseases that don’t involve the microbiome, gut microflora provide an important point of access that allows modification of many physiological systems.
Modifying to remedy, perhaps even cure these conditions, has generated substantial interest, leading to the development of live bacterial therapeutics (LBTs). One idea behind LBTs is to engineer bacterial hosts, or chassis, to produce therapeutics able to repair or restore healthy microbial function and diversity.
Existing efforts have primarily focused on using probiotic bacterial strains from the Bacteroides or Lactobacillus families or Escherichia coli that have been used for decades in the lab. However, these efforts have largely fallen short because engineered bacteria introduced into the gut generally do not survive what is fundamentally a hostile environment.
The inability to engraft or even survive in the gut requires frequent re-administration of these bacterial strains and often produces inconsistent effects or no effect at all. The phenomenon is perhaps most apparent in individuals who take probiotics, where these beneficial bacteria are unable to compete with the individual’s native microorganisms and largely disappear quickly.
“The lack of engraftment severely limits the use of LBTs for chronic conditions for curative effect or to study specific functions in the gut microbiome,” said Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a gastroenterologist at UC San Diego Health. “Published human trials using engineered LBTs have demonstrated safety, but still need to demonstrate reversal of disease. We believe this may be due to problems with colonization.”
In a proof-of-concept study, published in the August 4, 2022, online issue of Cell , Zarrinpar and colleagues at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report overcoming that hurdle by employing native bacteria in mice as the chassis for delivering transgenes capable of inducing persistent and potentially even curative therapeutic changes in the gut and reversing disease pathologies. Using this method, the group found they can provide long-term therapy in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes.
Source: https://health.ucsd.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: atherosclerosis, bacteria, Bacteroides, cancer, escherichia coli, gut microbiome, human gut, inflammatory bowel disease, Lactobacillus, LBTs, live bacterial therapeutics, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, transgenes, type 2 diabetes, UC San Diego School of Medicine, University of California San Diego School of Medicine
August 5, 2022
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To make hydrogen trade cost-effective, the costs of producing and trading green hydrogen must be lower than domestic production to offset higher transport costs. A new report series released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) sees hydrogen trade significantly contributing to a more diversified and resilient energy system.
‘Global hydrogen trade to meet the 1.5°C climate goal’ shows the importance of the future hydrogen trade. Trade allows countries to tap into affordable hydrogen as the scale of projects progresses and technology matures. One quarter of the global hydrogen demand could be satisfied by international trade through pipelines and ships.
With falling costs of renewables and the hydrogen potential exceeding global energy demand by 20-fold, three-quarters of global hydrogen would still be produced and used locally in 2050. This is a significant change from today’s oil market where the bulk is internationally traded.
“Having access to abundant renewables will not be enough to win the hydrogen race, it’s also necessary to develop hydrogen trade”, IRENA’s Director-General Francesco La Camera said. “It is true that hydrogen trade offers multiple opportunities from decarbonising industry to diversifying supplies and improving energy security. Energy importers can become the exporters of the future.”
“However, governments must make significant efforts to turn trade aspirations into reality”, La Camera added. “A mix of innovation, policy support and scale can bring the necessary cost reduction and create a global hydrogen market. Whether trade potentials can be realised will strongly depend on countriies’ policies and investment priorities and the ability to decarbonise their own energy systems.”
IRENA’s World Energy Transitions Outlook sees covering 12 per cent of global energy demand and cutting 10 per cent of CO2 emissions by 2050. Yet, hydrogen can only be a viable climate solution if the power needed to produce it comes in addition to the electrification of the energy system, placing an even greater uptake of renewable power at the heart of the transition.
The new reports see half of the hydrogen being traded through largely existing, repurposed gas pipelines drastically reducing the costs of transport. Shipping of green ammonia would account for most of the other half, largely intercontinental hydrogen trade.
As hydrogen becomes an increasingly internationally traded commodity, the hydrogen sector will attract growing sums of investment. Satisfying the global demand requires investment of almost USD 4 trillion by 2050. Net zero-aligned finance instruments will have to leverage the investment needed.
Today’s published new modeling framework can be used to assess critical parameters that will affect future trade flows. This report completes a series with two earlier reports on green hydrogen supply cost and potential as well as technology review of hydrogen carriers.
Source: https://www.irena.org/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: 1.5°C climate goal, CO2 emissions, global demand, Global hydrogen trade, green hydrogen, International Renewable Energy Agency, IRENA, pipe-lines, ships, supply cost, trade
August 4, 2022
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Within minutes of the final heartbeat, a cascade of biochemical events triggered by a lack of blood flow, oxygen, and nutrients begins to destroy a body’s cells and organs. But a team of Yale scientists has found that massive and permanent cellular failure doesn’t have to happen so quickly.
Using a new technology the team developed that delivers a specially designed cell-protective fluid to organs and tissues, the researchers restored blood circulation and other cellular functions in pigs a full hour after their deaths, they report in the Aug. 3 edition of the journal Nature. The findings may help extend the health of human organs during surgery and expand availability of donor organs, the authors said.
“All cells do not die immediately, there is a more protracted series of events,” said David Andrijevic, associate research scientist in neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine and co-lead author of the study. “It is a process in which you can intervene, stop, and restore some cellular function.”The research builds upon an earlier Yale-led project that restored circulation and certain cellular functions in the brain of a dead pig with technology dubbed BrainEx. Published in 2019, that study and the new one were led by the lab of Yale’s Nenad Sestan, Professor of Neuroscience.
“If we were able to restore certain cellular functions in the dead brain, an organ known to be most susceptible to ischemia [inadequate blood supply], we hypothesized that something similar could also be achieved in other vital transplantable organs,” Sestan said.
In the new study — which involved senior author Sestan and colleagues Andrijevic, Zvonimir Vrselja, Taras Lysyy, and Shupei Zhang, all from Yale — the researchers applied a modified version of BrainEx called OrganEx to the whole pig. The technology consists of a perfusion device similar to heart-lung machines — which do the work of the heart and lungs during surgery — and an experimental fluid containing compounds that can promote cellular health and suppress inflammation throughout the pig’s body. Cardiac arrest was induced in anesthetized pigs, which were treated with OrganEx an hour after death.
Six hours after treatment with OrganEx, the scientists found that certain key cellular functions were active in many areas of the pigs’ bodies — including in the heart, liver, and kidneys — and that some organ function had been restored. For instance, they found evidence of electrical activity in the heart, which retained the ability to contract.
“We were also able to restore circulation throughout the body, which amazed us,” Sestan said.
Normally when the heart stops beating, organs begin to swell, collapsing blood vessels and blocking circulation, he said. Yet circulation was restored and organs in the deceased pigs that received OrganEx treatment appeared functional at the level of cells and tissue. “Under the microscope, it was difficult to tell the difference between a healthy organ and one which had been treated with OrganEx technology after death,” Vrselja said.
Source: https://news.yale.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: blood flow, BrainEx, cellular failure, cels, donor organs, final heartbeat, fluid, nutrients, OrganEx, organs, oxygen, surgery, tissue, Yale University
August 3, 2022
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A sensor identifies misfolded protein biomarkers in the blood. This offers a chance to detect Alzheimer’s disease before any symptoms occur. Researchers intend to bring it to market maturity. The dementia disorder Alzheimer’s disease has a symptom-free course of 15 to 20 years before the first clinical symptoms emerge. Using an immuno-infrared sensor developed in Bochum (Germany), a research team is able to identify signs of Alzheimer’s disease in the blood up to 17 years before the first clinical symptoms appear. The sensor detects the misfolding of the protein biomarker amyloid-beta. As the disease progresses, this misfolding causes characteristic deposits in the brain, so-called plaques.
“Our goal is to determine the risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia at a later stage with a simple blood test even before the toxic plaques can form in the brain, in order to ensure that a therapy can be initiated in time,” says Professor Klaus Gerwert, founding director of the Centre for Protein Diagnostics (PRODI) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). His team cooperated for the study with a group at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg (DKFZ) headed by Professor Hermann Brenner.
The team published the results obtained with the immuno-infrared sensor in the journal “Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association” on 19 July 2022. This study is supported by a comparative study published in the same journal on 2 March 2022, in which the researchers used complementary single-molecule array (SIMOA) technology.
The researchers analysed blood plasma from participants in the ESTHER study conducted in Saarland for potential Alzheimer’s biomarkers. The blood samples had been taken between 2000 and 2002 and then frozen. At that time, the test participants were between 50 and 75 years old and hadn’t yet been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. For the current study, 68 participants were selected who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease during the 17-year follow-up and compared with 240 control subjects without such a diagnosis. The team headed by Klaus Gerwert and Hermann Brenner aimed to find out whether signs of Alzheimer’s disease could already be found in the blood samples at the beginning of the study.
The immuno-infrared sensor was able to identify the 68 test subjects who later developed Alzheimer’s disease with a high degree of test accuracy (0,78 AUC, Area under Curve). For comparison, the researchers examined other biomarkers with the complementary, highly sensitive SIMOA technology – specifically the P-tau181 biomarker, which is currently being proposed as a promising biomarker candidate in various studies.
Blood Test Spots Signs of Alzheimer’s Years Before Symptoms Appear
“Unlike in the clinical phase, however, this marker is not suitable for the early symptom-free phase of Alzheimer’s disease,” as Klaus Gerwert summarises the results of the comparative study. “Surprisingly, we found that the concentration of glial fibre protein (GFAP) can indicate the disease up to 17 years before the clinical phase, even though it does so much less precisely than the immuno-infrared sensor.” Still, by combining amyloid-beta misfolding and GFAP concentration, the researchers were able to further increase the accuracy of the test in the symptom-free stage to 0,83 AUC.
The Bochum researchers hope that an early diagnosis based on the amyloid-beta misfolding could help to apply Alzheimer’s drugs at such an early stage that they have a significantly better effect – for example, the drug Aduhelm, which was recently approved in the USA. “We plan to use the misfolding test to establish a screening method for older people and determine their risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia,” says Klaus Gerwert. “The vision of our newly founded start-up betaSENSE is that the disease can be stopped in a symptom-free stage before irreversible damage occurs.” Even though the sensor is still in the development phase, the invention has already been patented worldwide. BetaSENSE aims to bring the immuno-infrared sensor to market and have it approved as a diagnostic device so that it can be used in clinical labs.
Source: https://news.rub.de/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Aduhelm, Alzheimer's, Amyloid beta, BetaSENSE, biomarker, blood, Bochum, ESTHER study, GFAP, glial fibre protein, immuno-infrared sensor, misfolded protein biomarkers, P-tau181, plaques, RUB, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, SIMOA, single-molecule array
August 2, 2022
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In new research, scientists have trained atoms to exhibit two forms of time at the same, well, time. While the phenomenon is not bending time away from what you’d expect looking at the clock, the matter shows behaviors from two different time modes, giving it special properties. Scientists believe this odd, double-time phenomenon could represent a new phase of matter.
Researchers from a few American universities, as well as Honeywell quantum-computing spinoff Quantinuum, collaborated on the new paper, which appeared late last month in the journal Nature. The experimental setup is made up of lasers and ytterbium atoms. Ytterbium is a metallic element whose arrangement of electrons makes it unusually suited to respond to laser treatments in a particular area of the wave spectrum. To trigger the new “dynamical topological phase,” scientists first hold ytterbium atoms in place using an electric ion field—like a tiny magnet—then bombard them with the right wavelength of laser to supercool the ytterbium. Broomfield, Colorado-based Quantinuum studies a particular quantum computer that’s made of ten ytterbium atoms in a shared system. It’s these ten atoms, held by the electric fields mentioned above, that do the computing. A group of atoms can be entangled— meaning they’re intrinsically linked into a group that acts as one piece, despite being ten separate pieces. And within that, individual atoms can be tuned to reflect different information.
- A different pattern of laser pulses could make quantum computers way more stable.New research uses a Fibonacci-inspired, non-repeating sequence to keep qubits spinning.This creates a quasicrystal effect, with support in two dimensions instead of just one.
Think of how we write numbers. In binary, the largest ten-digit number is 1111111111, and that’s just 1,023 total. But you can write ten digits in base 10, our usual counting numbers, and get 9,999,999,999. That’s accomplished by simply increasing the number of possibilities that each digit can dial to from (0, 1) all the way up to (0, 1, . . . . 8, 9). So what about a system where, theoretically, each of ten atoms could be positioned anywhere on the dial?
If that sounds amazing, you’re not wrong! There are multiple reasons why scientists and industry speculators around the world are watching the field of quantum computers with bated breath. But there’s still a very big catch, and that’s where this research comes in. The atoms in the quantum computer, known as quantum bits, or qubits, are really vulnerable, because we don’t yet have a great way to keep them in the quantum state for long. That’s because of the observer principle in quantum physics: measuring a particle in a quantum state changes, and can even destroy, the quantum state. In this case, that means unhooking all the atoms from the shared yoke of entanglement. And even worse, the “observer” can be anything happening in the complex soup of air and forces and particles all around the quantum computer.
Source: https://www.popularmechanics.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: atom, entangle, Honeywell, ion field, laser, lasers, magnet, Quantinuum, quantum bits, QUANTUM COMPUTER, quantum state, qubits, wave spectrum, Ytterbium
August 1, 2022
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Cardiomyopathies are heart muscle diseases that affect 1 person in every 250. Treatment is life-long, expensive and doesn’t change the underlying disease, let alone cure it. Now a research organization, CureHeart, will seek to develop the first cures for inherited heart muscle diseases by pioneering revolutionary and ultra-precise gene therapy technologies that could edit or silence the faulty genes that cause these deadly conditions. The team, is made up of world-leading scientists from the UK, US and Singapore.
Inherited heart muscle diseases can cause the heart to stop suddenly or cause progressive heart failure in young people. Every week in the UK, 12 people under the age of 35 die of an undiagnosed heart condition, very often caused by one of these inherited heart muscle diseases, also known as genetic cardiomyopathies. Around half of all heart transplants are needed because of cardiomyopathy and current treatments do not prevent the condition from progressing. It’s estimated that one in 250 people worldwide – around 260,000 people in the UK – are affected by genetic cardiomyopathies, with a 50:50 risk they will pass their faulty genes on to each of their children.
In many cases, multiple members of the same family will develop heart failure, need a heart transplant, or are lost to sudden cardiac death at a young age. BHF Professor Hugh Watkins, from the Radcliffe Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford and lead investigator of CureHeart, said: “This is our once-in-generation opportunity to relieve families of the constant worry of sudden death, heart failure and potential need for a heart transplant. After 30 years of research, we have discovered many of the genes and specific genetic faults responsible for different cardiomyopathies, and how they work. We believe that we will have a gene therapy ready to start testing in clinical trials in the next five years.”
Source: https://www.rdm.ox.ac.uk/
AND
https://cureheart.org/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Cardiomyopathies, CureHeart, gene, gene therapy, Inherited heart muscle diseases, University of Oxford
July 29, 2022
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MIT researchers have developed a portable desalination unit, weighing less than 10 kilograms, that can remove particles and salts to generate drinking water. The suitcase-sized device, which requires less power to operate than a cell phone charger, can also be driven by a small, portable solar panel, which can be purchased online for around $50. It automatically generates drinking water that exceeds World Health Organization quality standards. The technology is packaged into a user-friendly device that runs with the push of one button. Unlike other portable desalination units that require water to pass through filters, this device utilizes electrical power to remove particles from drinking water. Eliminating the need for replacement filters greatly reduces the long-term maintenance requirements. This could enable the unit to be deployed in remote and severely resource-limited areas, such as communities on small islands or aboard seafaring cargo ships. It could also be used to aid refugees fleeing natural disasters or by soldiers carrying out long-term military operations.
“This is really the culmination of a 10-year journey that I and my group have been on. We worked for years on the physics behind individual desalination processes, but pushing all those advances into a box, building a system, and demonstrating it in the ocean, that was a really meaningful and rewarding experience for me,” says senior author Jongyoon Han, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and a member of the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE).
Joining Han on the paper are first author Junghyo Yoon, a research scientist in RLE; Hyukjin J. Kwon, a former postdoc; SungKu Kang, a postdoc at Northeastern University; and Eric Brack of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM). The research has been published online in Environmental Science and Technology.
Source: https://news.mit.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Combat Capabilities Development Command, DEVCOM, drinking water, MIT, Northeastern University, portable desalination unit, portable solar panel, seawater, World Health Organization
July 28, 2022
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Automotive giant Toyota, along with three other partners, will work on the development of light-duty fuel cell electric trucks with a view to rolling them out in Japan next year. In a statement Tuesday, Toyota said it would collaborate with Isuzu, Hino Motors and Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corporation (CJPT) on the project. Both Isuzu and Hino carried the same statement as Toyota on their respective websites. One potential use case for the fuel cell vehicles could be in the supermarket and convenience store sector, where Toyota said light-duty trucks were “required to drive long distances over extended hours to perform multiple delivery operations in one day.”
The company also listed fast refueling as a requirement for vehicles operating in this segment. 
“The use of FC [fuel cell] technology, which runs on high energy density hydrogen and has zero CO2 emissions while driving, is considered effective under such operating conditions,” it added.
According to the company, an introduction to the market is slated for after January 2023, with light duty fuel-cell trucks used at distribution sites in Fukushima Prefecture and other projects in Tokyo. Hino Motors is part of the Toyota Group, while CJPT was established by Isuzu, Toyota and Hino in 2021. Toyota started working on the development of fuel-cell vehicles — where hydrogen from a tank mixes with oxygen, producing electricity — back in 1992. In 2014, it launched the Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell sedan. The business says its fuel cell vehicles emit “nothing but water from the tailpipe.”
Alongside the Mirai, Toyota has had a hand in the development of larger hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. These include a bus called the Sora and prototypes of heavy-duty trucks. Alongside fuel cells, Toyota is looking at using hydrogen in internal combustion engines.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: CJPT, Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corporation, fuel cells, heavy-duty trucks, Hino Motors, hydrogen, hydrogen fuel cell sedan, internal combustion engines, Isuzu, light duty fuel-cell trucks, Mirai, Sora, supermarkets, Toyota
July 27, 2022
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Energy, mass, velocity. These three variables make up Einstein‘s iconic equation E=MC2. But how did Einstein know about these concepts in the first place? A precursor step to understanding physics is identifying relevant variables. Without the concept of energy, mass, and velocity, not even Einstein could discover relativity. But can such variables be discovered automatically? Doing so could greatly accelerate scientific discovery. This is the question that researchers at Columbia Engineering posed to a new AI program. The program was designed to observe physical phenomena through a video camera, then try to search for the minimal set of fundamental variables that fully describe the observed dynamics. The study was published on July 25 in Nature Computational Science. The researchers began by feeding the system raw video footage of phenomena for which they already knew the answer. For example, they fed a video of a swinging double pendulum known to have exactly four “state variables”—the angle and angular velocity of each of the two arms. After a few hours of analysis, the AI produced the answer: 4.7.
“We thought this answer was close enough,” said Hod Lipson, director of the Creative Machines Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, where the work was primarily done. “Especially since all the AI had access to was raw video footage, without any knowledge of physics or geometry. But we wanted to know what the variables actually were, not just their number.”
The researchers then proceeded to visualize the actual variables that the program identified. Extracting the variables themselves was not easy, since the program cannot describe them in any intuitive way that would be understandable to humans. After some probing, it appeared that two of the variables the program chose loosely corresponded to the angles of the arms, but the other two remain a mystery.
“We tried correlating the other variables with anything and everything we could think of: angular and linear velocities, kinetic and potential energy, and various combinations of known quantities,” explained Boyuan Chen Ph.D., now an assistant professor at Duke University, who led the work. “But nothing seemed to match perfectly.” The team was confident that the AI had found a valid set of four variables, since it was making good predictions, “but we don’t yet understand the mathematical language it is speaking,” he explained.
Source: https://phys.org/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, E=MC2, Einstein, energy, mass, relativity, variables, velocity
July 26, 2022
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Scientists at Hongtuo Joint Laboratory in Wuhan, China, have invented what sounds like a mysterious yet fascinating laser pen that can write in mid-air — an intriguing approach that could, theoretically, be an onramp to “Star Wars”-esque hologram technology.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported yesterday that the pen uses ultra-short laser pulses to strip the electrons from air particles and turn them into light-emitting plasma with sufficient precision to form words in mid-air.
“With the brand new device, we can draw in the air without using paper and ink,” lab lead scientist Cao Xiangdong told the state-affiliated Science and Technology Daily this week, as reported by the SCMP.
The SCMP reported that the scientists said they used 3D scanning to arrange pixels and form Chinese characters, but didn’t completely explain how the process works. Long story short, it sounds awesome, but we’re gonna want to see more in the way of a demo.
The pen reportedly works in incredibly short laser bursts, equivalent to just a few quadrillionths of a second. At the same time, its power output is nearly incomprehensible.
The laser pen can reach one million megawatts, according to the SCMP, which isn’t too far off from the total amount of power the United States can generate. However, because the bursts are so short, the device doesn’t draw an immense amount of power, making it — the scientists say — relatively safe to use.
The team is hoping the pen could someday be used in quantum computing, brain imaging and other advanced tech. Or maybe we’ll even see some awesome new holographic technology.
Source: https://www.scmp.com/
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https://futurism.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: 3D scanning, brain imaging, China, electrons, hologram technology, Hongtuo Joint Laboratory, laser pen, pen, quantum computing, ultra-short laser pulses
July 25, 2022
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The first brain-computer interface device was implanted in a patient in the US earlier in July by a doctor at the medical center, Mount Sinai West, in New York, in an investigatory trial of the startup Synchron’s procedure to help patients suffering from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) text by thinking. The procedure involved the doctor threading a 1.5-inch-long implant comprised of wires and electrodes into a blood vessel in the brain of a patient with ALS. The hope is that the patient, who’s lost the ability to move and speak, will be able to surf the web and communicate via email and text simply by thinking, and the device will translate the patient’s thoughts into commands sent to a computer. Synchron, the startup behind the technology, has already implanted its devices in four patients in Australia, who haven’t experienced side effects and have been able to carry out such tasks as sending WhatsApp messages and making online purchases.
The implant was a major step forward in a nascent industry, putting the Brooklyn-based company ahead of competitors, including ahead of Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp.
“This surgery was special because of its implications and huge potential,” said Dr. Shahram Majidi, the neurointerventional surgeon who performed the procedure.This was the first procedure the company has performed in the US.
The brain-computer interface (BCI) has caught the attention of many in the technological field because its device, known as the stentrode, can be inserted into the brain without cutting through a person’s skull or damaging tissue. A doctor makes an incision in the patient’s neck and feeds the stentrode via a catheter through the jugular vein into a blood vessel nestled within the motor cortex. As the catheter is removed, the stentrode, a cylindrical, hollow wire mesh opens up and begins to fuse with the outer edges of the vessel. According to Majidi, the process is very similar to implanting a coronary stent and takes only a few minutes.
A second procedure then connects the stentrode via a wire to a computing device implanted in the patient’s chest. To do this, the surgeon must create a tunnel for the wire and a pocket for the device underneath the patient’s skin much like what’s done to accommodate a pacemaker. The stentrode reads the signals when neurons fire in the brain, and the computing device amplifies those signals and sends them out to a computer or smartphone via Bluetooth.
The stentrode then uses sixteen electrodes to monitor brain activity and record the firing of neurons when a person thinks. The signal strength improves over time as the device fuses deeper into the blood vessel and gets closer to the neurons. Software is used to analyze the patterns of brain data and match them with the the user’s goal.
Source: https://synchron.com/
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https://greekreporter.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, BCI, blood vessel, Bluetooth, brain, brain-computer interface, computer, Elon Musk, implant, motor cortex, Mount Sinai West, Neuralink Corp, smartphone, stentrode, Synchron
July 22, 2022
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Scientists have developed artificial intelligence software that can create proteins that may be useful as vaccines, cancer treatments, or even tools for pulling carbon pollution out of the air. This research was led by the University of Washington School of Medicine and Harvard University.
“The proteins we find in nature are amazing molecules, but designed proteins can do so much more,” said senior author David Baker, a professor of biochemistry at UW Medicine. “In this work, we show that machine learning can be used to design proteins with a wide variety of functions.”
For decades, scientists have used computers to try to engineer proteins. Some proteins, such as antibodies and synthetic binding proteins, have been adapted into medicines to combat COVID-19. Others, such as enzymes, aid in industrial manufacturing. But a single protein molecule often contains thousands of bonded atoms; even with specialized scientific software, they are difficult to study and engineer. Inspired by how machine learning algorithms can generate stories or even images from prompts, the team set out to build similar software for designing new proteins. “The idea is the same: neural networks can be trained to see patterns in data. Once trained, you can give it a prompt and see if it can generate an elegant solution. Often the results are compelling — or even beautiful,” said lead author Joseph Watson, a postdoctoral scholar at UW Medicine.
The team trained multiple neural networks using information from the Protein Data Bank, which is a public repository of hundreds of thousands of protein structures from across all kingdoms of life. The neural networks that resulted have surprised even the scientists who created them.
Deep machine learning program hallucinating new ideas for vaccine molecules
The team developed two approaches for designing proteins with new functions. The first, dubbed “hallucination” is akin to DALL-E or other generative A.I. tools that produce new output based on simple prompts. The second, dubbed “inpainting,” is analogous to the autocomplete feature found in modern search bars and email clients.
“Most people can come up with new images of cats or write a paragraph from a prompt if asked, but with protein design, the human brain cannot do what computers now can,” said lead author Jue Wang, a postdoctoral scholar at UW Medicine. “Humans just cannot imagine what the solution might look like, but we have set up machines that do.”
To explain how the neural networks ‘hallucinate’ a new protein, the team compares it to how it might write a book: “You start with a random assortment of words — total gibberish. Then you impose a requirement such as that in the opening paragraph, it needs to be a dark and stormy night. Then the computer will change the words one at a time and ask itself ‘Does this make my story make more sense?’ If it does, it keeps the changes until a complete story is written,” explains Wang.
Both books and proteins can be understood as long sequences of letters. In the case of proteins, each letter corresponds to a chemical building block called an amino acid. Beginning with a random chain of amino acids, the software mutates the sequence over and over until a final sequence that encodes the desired function is generated. These final amino acid sequences encode proteins that can then be manufactured and studied in the laboratory.
The research is published in the journal Science.
Source: https://newsroom.uw.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Air, amino acid, antibodies, Artificial Intelligence, cancer, carbon, DALL-E, hallucination, Harvard, inpainting, machine learning algorithms, pollution, Protein Data Bank, proteins, synthetic binding proteins, University of Washington School of Medicine, vaccines
July 21, 2022
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Researchers are one step closer to making a multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test, that can detect over 50 types of cancer, available to select candidates: those who are age 50 and older, asymptomatic, and considered high risk for the disease. Findings from the third and final phase of the Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas (CCGA) study have been published in the Annals of Oncology. Study findings confirm that the test is proficient in detecting and classifying cell-free DNA (cfDNA), or tumor byproducts deposited in the bloodstream of a person with cancer. The test can also identify the site of the originating tumor, even in patients with no cancer-related symptoms.
Eric A. Klein, MD, first author of the paper and Chairman Emeritus of the Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute, says these findings corroborate those of a previous CCGA sub-study, but at a larger scale and with an independent validation set. He says these results set the stage for a new cancer screening paradigm.
“With the multi-cancer early detection tests, we have the opportunity to diagnose and treat cancer earlier. Used alongside other screening modalities, this could significantly reduce cancer-related deaths,” he says. For some high-mortality cancers – including liver, pancreatic and esophageal – this is the first screening test available.
Currently, only five cancer screening tests are available for patients in the United States; this includes tests for prostate, lung, breast, colorectal and cervical cancers. They each have limitations, including varying levels of invasiveness, discrepancies in use across clinical practice and high false-positive rates, which can lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment. The promise of this new assay is raising hopes that a new paradigm is afoot. It can detect the presence of circulating cfDNA through a single blood draw and is particularly effective when it comes to identifying more lethal and later-stage cancers, believed to have more cfDNA. However, this also underscores the importance of combining the MCED with existing screening tests until further refinements are made. “Prostate cancer, for example, sheds comparatively less DNA than other tumors, making it less likely to be detected by the novel assay,” explains Dr. Klein, a urologic oncologist. GRAIL, Inc. a California-based biotech company, developed the assay and has funded international research efforts. The MCED test is now available in the United States by prescription only.
Source: https://www.thebrighterside.news/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: blood test, bloodstream, cancer, CCGA, cfDNA, Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas, GRAIL, Inc., MCED, multi-cancer early detection, new cancer screening paradigm, prostate cancer
July 20, 2022
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A revolutionary new treatment for cataracts has shown extremely positive results in laboratory tests, giving hope that the condition, that currently can only be cured with surgery, could soon be treated with drugs.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 65.2 million people worldwide are living with cataracts, the leading cause of blindness and vision impairment worldwide. Cataract is a clouding of the eye lens that is caused by a disorganisation of the proteins in the lens that leads to clumps of protein forming that scatter light and severely reduce transmission to the retina. This often occurs with age, but can also be caused by the eye’s overexposure to the sun or injury, as well as smoking, medical conditions such as diabetes, and some medications.
Surgery can correct the condition by replacing the lens with an artificial one. A team of international scientists, led by Professor Barbara Pierscionek, Deputy Dean (Research and Innovation) in the Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), have been carrying out advanced optical tests on an oxysterol compound that had been proposed as an anti-cataract drug.
The compound oxysterol, is an oxygenated derivative of cholesterol that plays a role in the regulation and transport of cholesterol. This means that the protein organisation of the lens is being restored, resulting in the lens being better able to focus. This was supported by a reduction in lens opacity in 46% of cases.
The researchers tested an assortment of 35 wild mice and mice genetically altered to develop lens cloudiness through an alteration of their αB-crystallin or αA-crystallin proteins. In the right eye of 26 mice, the researchers administered a single drop of an oxysterol compound, VP1-001Trusted Source, directly onto the ocular surface. Meanwhile, they gave a neutral drop of cyclodextrin in their left eyes. Nine mice were left untreated as a control group. The target of the treatment was the αA- and αB-crystallin mutations that often cause cataracts in aging.
The results have been published today in the peer-reviewed journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.
Source: https://aru.ac.uk/
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https://www.thebrighterside.news/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Anglia Ruskin University, anti-cataract drug, ARU, blindness, cataract, cholesterol, drug, lens, oxysterol, retina, αA-crystallin proteins, αB-crystallin
July 19, 2022
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A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Germany has developed a cochlear implant that converts sound waves to light signals instead of electrical signals. In their paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the group describes their new hearing aid and how well it worked in test rats.
Cochlear implants work by converting sound waves into electrical signals that are sent to nerve cells in the ear. The idea is to bypass damaged hair cells inside the cochlea to restore hearing. But because the fluid in the ear also conducts electricity, the electrical signals that are generated can cross, leading to a loss of resolution. The result is difficulty hearing in some situations, such as crowded rooms, or when listening to music with a lot of instruments. In this new effort, the researchers sought to replace the electrical signals in such devices with light signals, which would not be muddied by the fluid in the ear, and thereby improve hearing.
In all types of cochlear devices, sound entering the ear is directed to a computer chip that processes the sound it detects. After processing, the chip directs another device to create signals that are sent to the neurons. With the new device, the researchers developed a device that would generate light using LED chips and send it through fiber cable directly to the nerve cells.
In order for such a system to work, the nerve cells inside the ear would have to be modified in some way to allow them to respond to light instead of electricity. For testing purposes, the researchers genetically modified lab rats to grow nerve cells in their ears that would respond to light. In their device, they used an implant with 10 LED chips. They also trained the rats to respond to different sounds before disabling their hair cells and implanting the cochlear devices. The implants worked as hoped, as the rats were able to respond in similar ways to the same generated sounds.
The researchers suggest that in people, such a device would use 64 LED or other light source channels. They also plan to conduct more research with the device and hope to start clinical trials by 2025.
Source: https://medicalxpress.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: cochlear implants, computer chip, ear, electrical signals, LED chips, light signals, nerve cells, neurons, sound waves
July 18, 2022
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The usual method of visualizing brain structure utilizes a technique most of us are familiar with, called MRI. However, it is not sensitive enough to reveal the biological changes that take place in the brain of Parkinson patients, and at present is primarily only used to eliminate other possible diagnoses.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) researchers, led by Professor Aviv Mezer, realized that the cellular changes in Parkinson’s could possibly be revealed by adapting a related technique, known as quantitative MRI (qMRI). Their method has enabled them to look at microstructures within the part of the deep brain known as the striatum – an organ which is known to deteriorate during the progress of Parkinson’s disease. Using a novel method of analysis, developed by Mezer’s doctoral student, Elior Drori, biological changes in the cellar tissue of the striatum were clearly revealed. Moreover, they were able to demonstrate that these changes were associated with the early stages of Parkinson’s and patients’ movement dysfunction. Their findings were published 12 July 2022 in the prestigious journal Science Advances.
qMRI achieves its sensitivity by taking several MRI images using different excitation energies – rather like taking the same photograph in different colors of lighting. The HU researchers were able to use their qMRI analysis to reveal changes in the tissue structure within distinct regions of the striatum. The structural sensitivity of these measurements could only have been previously achieved in laboratories examining the brain cells of patients post mortem. Not an ideal situation for detecting early disease or monitoring the efficacy of a drug!
Description: MRI images used for automatic detection of microstructural changes in early-stage Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients. Marked in yellow are areas in the putamen where PD patients show tissue damage, compared to healthy controls.
“When you don’t have measurements, you don’t know what is normal and what is abnormal brain structure, and what is changing during the progress of the disease,” explained Mezer. The new information will facilitate early diagnosis of the disease and provide “markers” for monitoring the efficacy of future drug therapies. “What we have discovered,” he continued “is the tip of the iceberg.” It is a technique that they will now extend to investigate microstructural changes in other regions of the brain. Furthermore, the team are now developing qMRI into a tool that can be used in a clinical setting. Mezer anticipates that is about 3-5 years down the line.
Drori further suggests that this type of analysis will enable identification of subgroups within the population suffering from Parkinson’s disease – some of whom may respond differently to some drugs than others. Ultimately, he sees this analysis “leading to personalized treatment, allowing future discoveries of drug with each person receiving the most appropriate drug”.
Source: https://www.bfhu.org/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: brain, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, HU, markers, MRI, Parkinson, qMRI, quantitative MRI, striatum
July 15, 2022
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The entirety of the known universe is teeming with an infinite number of molecules. But what fraction of these molecules have potential drug-like traits that can be used to develop life-saving drug treatments? Millions? Billions? Trillions? The answer: novemdecillion, or 1060. This gargantuan number prolongs the drug development process for fast-spreading diseases like Covid-19 because it is far beyond what existing drug design models can compute. To put it into perspective, the Milky Way has about 100 billion, or 1011, stars.
In a paper that will be presented at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), MIT researchers developed a geometric deep-learning model called EquiBind that is 1,200 times faster than one of the fastest existing computational molecular docking models, QuickVina2-W, in successfully binding drug-like molecules to proteins. EquiBind is based on its predecessor, EquiDock, which specializes in binding two proteins using a technique developed by the late Octavian-Eugen Ganea, a recent MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health (Jameel Clinic) postdoc, who also co-authored the EquiBind paper.
Before drug development can even take place, drug researchers must find promising drug-like molecules that can bind or “dock” properly onto certain protein targets in a process known as drug discovery. After successfully docking to the protein, the binding drug, also known as the ligand, can stop a protein from functioning. If this happens to an essential protein of a bacterium, it can kill the bacterium, conferring protection to the human body.
However, the process of drug discovery can be costly both financially and computationally, with billions of dollars poured into the process and over a decade of development and testing before final approval from the Food and Drug Administration. What’s more, 90 percent of all drugs fail once they are tested in humans due to having no effects or too many side effects. One of the ways drug companies recoup the costs of these failures is by raising the prices of the drugs that are successful.
The current computational process for finding promising drug candidate molecules goes like this: most state-of-the-art computational models rely upon heavy candidate sampling coupled with methods like scoring, ranking, and fine-tuning to get the best “fit” between the ligand and the protein.
EquiBind (cyan) predicts the ligand that could fit into a protein pocket (green). The true conformation is in pink.
Hannes Stärk, a first-year graduate student at the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and lead author of the paper, likens typical ligand-to-protein binding methodologies to “trying to fit a key into a lock with a lot of keyholes. ” Typical models time-consumingly score each “fit” before choosing the best one. In contrast, EquiBind directly predicts the precise key location in a single step without prior knowledge of the protein’s target pocket, which is known as “blind docking.”
Unlike most models that require several attempts to find a favorable position for the ligand in the protein, EquiBind already has built-in geometric reasoning that helps the model learn the underlying physics of molecules and successfully generalize to make better predictions when encountering new, unseen data.
Source: https://news.mit.edu/
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| Tags: drug, EquiDock, FDA, ligand, MIT
July 14, 2022
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Verve Therapeutics has dosed its first patient with what it said today was the first in vivo base editing therapy to reach the clinic, a potential treatment for Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (HeFH). Base editing is a genome-editing method related to the CRISPR–Cas9 system.
Verve, which specializes in gene editing therapies for cardiovascular disease, said that its VERVE-101 is a single-course gene editing treatment designed to reduce the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) that drives HeFH. VERVE-101 consists of an adenine base editor messenger RNA that Verve has licensed from another base editing therapy developer, Beam Therapeutics, as well as an optimized guide RNA targeting the PCSK9 gene packaged in an engineered lipid nanoparticle.
By making a single A-to-G change in the DNA genetic sequence of PCSK9, VERVE-101 aims to inactivate that target gene. Verve reasons that inactivation of the PCSK9 gene has previously been shown to up-regulate LDLR expression, leading to lower LDL-C levels and thus reducing the risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD)—of which HeFH is a subtype. Base editing is a pinpoint method for engineering base substitutions without cleaving the DNA double helix backbone. The underlying technology was developed in the lab of Harvard University chemist David Liu, PhD—who co-founded Beam with Feng Zhang, PhD, and Keith Joung, MD—with research led by two postdocs, Alexis Komor, PhD, and Nicole Gaudelli, PhD.
Beam is also expected to enroll its first patient later this year in its first clinical trial for one of its base editing therapies, BEAM-101 for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). Beam also plans two IND applications this year—one for its second SCD candidate BEAM-102, and the other for BEAM-201, a treatment for relapsed/refractory T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/T cell lymphoblastic lymphoma.
“The dosing of the first human with such an investigational base editing medicine represents a significant achievement by our team and for the field of gene editing,” Sekar Kathiresan, MD, Verve’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Preclinical data suggest that VERVE-101 has the potential to offer people with HeFH a game-changing treatment option, transforming the traditional chronic care model to a single-course, life-long treatment solution,” Kathiresan added.
Andrew Bellinger, MD, PhD, Verve’s chief scientific and medical officer, added that VERVE-101 is intended to improve upon current standard of care treatment for HeFH. He stated that less than 20% of patients achieve LDL-C goal levels due to the limitations of the chronic model, which include requirements for rigorous patient adherence, regular health care access, and extensive health care infrastructure.
Source: https://www.vervetx.com/
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https://www.genengnews.com/
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| Tags: adenine base editor messenger RNA, ASCVD, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, base editing, Beam Therapeutics, BEAM-101, DNA, Gene-editing, Harvard University, HeFH, heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, LDL-C, PCSK9, reduce the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, SCD, sickle cell disease, Verve Therapeutics
July 13, 2022
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Xanadu Quantum Technologies, one of several companies trying to harness the ephemeral nature of quantum physics to revolutionize the computer industry, has hit an elusive milestone with a device that can outperform any supercomputer in the world at a specific task.
In a paper published in the research journal Nature, the Canadian company described how its machine, a quantum computer dubbed Borealis, achieved “quantum advantage” – a term that means it delivered a result beyond the practical reach of a conventional computer system.
Specifically, Borealis provided a series of numbers with a specified range of probability in just 36 millionths of a second, an operation that would take the world’s most powerful supercomputers more than 9,000 years to match. The feat does not have immediate application, but scientists at Xanadu had to surmount several key challenges to accomplish it.
“That’s what we think is really great about this,” said Christian Weedbrook, Xanadu’s founder and chief executive officer, during an interview at the company’s headquarters, where Borealis sits on the 29th floor of an office building overlooking downtown Toronto. “A lot of those breakthroughs are what we need in order to get to a quantum computer that is useful to customers.”
Source: https://www.nature.com/
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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
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| Tags: Borealis, quantum advantage, QUANTUM COMPUTER, Xanadu Quantum Technologies
July 12, 2022
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The quantum world is a strange place. If you look at an object, it changes. If you know how fast it’s moving, you can’t know where it is. Measurements that happened in the past can seemingly be erased later. Particles are sometimes waves and can be in two places at once. Cats may be both dead and alive. These are things we say when talking about the quantum world, but is this really what is going on?
Quantum mechanics is an incredibly well-established theory. It has passed every test it’s ever been subjected to. It underlies much of the technological progress we have seen in the past century, for what would electronics be without discrete energy levels, which came to us courtesy of quantum mechanics? We have the mathematics and we know how to work it, yet even after a century of debate, we don’t know what the mathematics of quantum mechanics means.
Let’s take an example: the idea that particles can be in two places at once. We are familiar with particles that are in one place at a time – an electron, say, that hits a screen and leaves a dot. These particles make an appearance in quantum mechanics as a possible solution to the equations, as we expect.
But quantum mechanics is a linear theory, which means if particles in particular places exist, then so do sums of those particles. We call those sums “superpositions”. And what is a particle in one place plus the same particle in another place? It’s not two particles – that would be described by a product, not a sum. Could you say that if we have a sum, then that’s a particle which is in both places? Well, it’s been said many times, so arguably one can.
However, I don’t know what a superposition is, other than a piece of mathematics that we need in order to explain what we observe. We need superpositions because they give particles their wave-like properties. When we see waves interfering in water – cancelling out where a crest meets a trough – this is a non-quantum effect, a “classical” effect as physicists say. But it turns out that single particles can interfere with themselves. When we send an individual particle of light, or photon, through two thin slits in a plate – a double-slit – we see, as expected, a dot on the screen behind the plate. But if we continue doing this for many photons, we see an interference pattern built up from individual dots.
The only way we can explain this pattern is that each particle is a sum – a superposition – of two paths, one going through the left slit and one through the right. So why not just say that the particle goes both ways?
Source: https://www.newscientist.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: mathematics, particles, quantum, quantum mechanics, superpositions, wave-like properties, waves
July 11, 2022
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On a rainy afternoon earlier this year, I logged in to my OpenAI account and typed a simple instruction for the company’s artificial intelligence algorithm, GPT-3: ‘Write an academic thesis in 500 words about GPT-3 and add scientific references and citations inside the text.’
As it started to generate text, I stood in awe. Here was novel content written in academic language, with well-grounded references cited in the right places and in relation to the right context. It looked like any other introduction to a fairly good scientific publication. Given the very vague instruction I provided, I didn’t have any high expectations: I’m a scientist who studies ways to use artificial intelligence to treat mental health concerns, and this wasn’t my first experimentation with AI or GPT-3, a deep-learning algorithm that analyzes a vast stream of information to create text on command. Yet there I was, staring at the screen in amazement. The algorithm was writing an academic paper about itself.
My attempts to complete that paper and submit it to a peer-reviewed journal have opened up a series of ethical and legal questions about publishing, as well as philosophical arguments about nonhuman authorship. Academic publishing may have to accommodate a future of AI-driven manuscripts, and the value of a human researcher’s publication records may change if something nonsentient can take credit for some of their work.
GPT-3 is well known for its ability to create humanlike text, but it’s not perfect. Still, it has written a news article, produced books in 24 hours and created new content from deceased authors. But it dawned on me that, although a lot of academic papers had been written about GPT-3, and with the help of GPT-3, none that I could find had made GPT-3 the main author of its own work.
That’s why I asked the algorithm to take a crack at an academic thesis. As I watched the program work, I experienced that feeling of disbelief one gets when you watch a natural phenomenon: Am I really seeing this triple rainbow happen? With that success in mind, I contacted the head of my research group and asked if a full GPT-3-penned paper was something we should pursue. He, equally fascinated, agreed.
Some stories about GPT-3 allow the algorithm to produce multiple responses and then publish only the best, most humanlike excerpts. We decided to give the program prompts—nudging it to create sections for an introduction, methods, results and discussion, as you would for a scientific paper—but interfere as little as possible. We were only to use the first (and at most the third) iteration from GPT-3, and we would refrain from editing or cherry-picking the best parts. Then we would see how well it does.
We chose to have GPT-3 write a paper about itself for two simple reasons. First, GPT-3 is fairly new, and as such, there are fewer studies about it. This means it has less data to analyze about the paper’s topic. In comparison, if it were to write a paper on Alzheimer’s disease, it would have reams of studies to sift through, and more opportunities to learn from existing work and increase the accuracy of its writing.
Secondly, if it got things wrong (e.g. if it suggested an outdated medical theory or treatment strategy from its training database), as all AI sometimes does, we wouldn’t be necessarily spreading AI-generated misinformation in our effort to publish – the mistake would be part of the experimental command to write the paper. GPT-3 writing about itself and making mistakes doesn’t mean it still can’t write about itself, which was the point we were trying to prove. Once we designed this proof-of-principle test, the fun really began. In response to my prompts, GPT-3 produced a paper in just two hours. But as I opened the submission portal for our chosen journal (a well-known peer-reviewed journal in machine intelligence) I encountered my first problem: what is GPT-3’s last name? As it was mandatory to enter the last name of the first author, I had to write something, and I wrote “None.” The affiliation was obvious (OpenAI.com), but what about phone and e-mail? I had to resort to using my contact information and that of my advisor, Steinn Steingrimsson.
Source: https://www.gu.se/
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https://www.scientificamerican.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: AI, artificial intelligence algorithm, books, deep-learning algorithm, GPT-3, news article, nonhuman authorship, OpenAI
July 8, 2022
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Using a novel fabrication process, MIT researchers have produced smart textiles that snugly conform to the body so they can sense the wearer’s posture and motions. By incorporating a special type of plastic yarn and using heat to slightly melt it — a process called thermoforming — the researchers were able to greatly improve the precision of pressure sensors woven into multilayered knit textiles, which they call 3DKnITS. They used this process to create a “smart” shoe and mat, and then built a hardware and software system to measure and interpret data from the pressure sensors in real time. The machine-learning system predicted motions and yoga poses performed by an individual standing on the smart textile mat with about 99 percent accuracy.
Their fabrication process, which takes advantage of digital knitting technology, enables rapid prototyping and can be easily scaled up for large-scale manufacturing, says Irmandy Wicaksono, a research assistant in the MIT Media Lab and lead author of a paper presenting 3DKnITS. The technique could have many applications, especially in health care and rehabilitation. For example, it could be used to produce smart shoes that track the gait of someone who is learning to walk again after an injury, or socks that monitor pressure on a diabetic patient’s foot to prevent the formation of ulcers.
“With digital knitting, you have this freedom to design your own patterns and also integrate sensors within the structure itself, so it becomes seamless and comfortable, and you can develop it based on the shape of your body,” Wicaksono says.
“Some of the early pioneering work on smart fabrics happened at the Media Lab in the late ’90s. The materials, embeddable electronics, and fabrication machines have advanced enormously since then,” explains Paradiso, senior author within the Media Lab. “It’s a great time to see our research returning to this area, for example through projects like Irmandy’s — they point at an exciting future where sensing and functions diffuse more fluidly into materials and open up enormous possibilities.”
To produce a smart textile, the researchers use a digital knitting machine that weaves together layers of fabric with rows of standard and functional yarn. The multilayer knit textile is composed of two layers of conductive yarn knit sandwiched around a piezoresistive knit, which changes its resistance when squeezed. Following a pattern, the machine stitches this functional yarn throughout the textile in horizontal and vertical rows. Where the functional fibers intersect, they create a pressure sensor, Wicaksono explains.
Source: https://news.mit.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: 3DKnITS, digital knitting, MIT, piezoresistive knit, plastic yarn, pression sensors, smart textiles, thermoforming, woven
July 7, 2022
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Aiming to produce environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic food wrap and containers, a Rutgers scientist has developed a biodegradable, plant-based coating that can be sprayed on foods, guarding against pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms and transportation damage. The scalable process could potentially reduce the adverse environmental impact of plastic food packaging as well as protect human health.
“We knew we needed to get rid of the petroleum-based food packaging that is out there and replace it with something more sustainable, biodegradable and nontoxic,” said Philip Demokritou, director of the Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Research Center, and the at the Rutgers School of Public Health and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. “And we asked ourselves at the same time, ‘Can we design food packaging with a functionality to extend shelf life and reduce food waste while enhancing food safety?’’’
Demokritou added, “And what we have come up with is a scalable technology, which enables us to turn biopolymers, which can be derived as part of a circular economy from food waste, into smart fibers that can wrap food directly. This is part of new generation, ‘smart’ and ‘green’ food packaging.”
The research was conducted in concert with scientists at Harvard University and funded by the Harvard-Nanyang Technological University/Singapore Sustainable Nanotechnology Initiative.
Their article, published in the science journal Nature Food, describes the new kind of packaging technology using the polysaccharide/biopolymer-based fibers. Like the webs cast by the Marvel comic book character Spider-Man, the stringy material can be spun from a heating device that resembles a hair dryer and “shrink-wrapped” over foods of various shapes and sizes, such as an avocado or a sirloin steak. The resulting material that encases food products is sturdy enough to protect bruising and contains antimicrobial agents to fight spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms such as E. coli and listeria.
The research paper includes a description of the technology called focused rotary jet spinning, a process by which the biopolymer is produced, and quantitative assessments showing the coating extended the shelf life of avocados by 50 percent. The coating can be rinsed off with water and degrades in soil within three days, according to the study.
Source: https://www.rutgers.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: biodegradabl, biodegradable, biopolymer, coating, food, hair dryer, Harvard University, pathogen, plastic food wrap, polysaccharide/biopolymer-based fibers, Rutgers, Rutgers School of Public Health and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute., Spider-Man, SPRAY
July 6, 2022
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A shapeshifting robotic microswarm may one day act as a toothbrush, rinse, and dental floss in one. The technology, developed by a multidisciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania, is poised to offer a new and automated way to perform the mundane but critical daily tasks of brushing and flossing. It’s a system that could be particularly valuable for those who lack the manual dexterity to clean their teeth effectively themselves.
The building blocks of these microrobots are iron oxide nanoparticles that have both catalytic and magnetic activity. Using a magnetic field, researchers could direct their motion and configuration to form either bristlelike structures that sweep away dental plaque from the broad surfaces of teeth, or elongated strings that can slip between teeth like a length of floss. In both instances, a catalytic reaction drives the nanoparticles to produce antimicrobials that kill harmful oral bacteria on site.
Experiments using this system on mock and real human teeth showed that the robotic assemblies can conform to a variety of shapes to nearly eliminate the sticky biofilms that lead to cavities and gum disease.
“Routine oral care is cumbersome and can pose challenges for many people, especially those who have hard time cleaning their teeth” says Hyun (Michel) Koo, a professor in the Department of Orthodontics in Penn’s School of Dental Medicine and co-corresponding author on the study. “You have to brush your teeth, then floss your teeth, then rinse your mouth; it’s a manual, multistep process. The big innovation here is that the robotics system can do all three in a single, hands-free, automated way.”
“Nanoparticles can be shaped and controlled with magnetic fields in surprising ways,” says Edward Steager, a senior research investigator in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-corresponding author. “We form bristles that can extend, sweep, and even transfer back and forth across a space, much like flossing. The way it works is similar to how a robotic arm might reach out and clean a surface. The system can be programmed to do the nanoparticle assembly and motion control automatically.”
The Penn team shared their findings establishing a proof-of-concept for the robotic system in the journal ACS Nano.
Source: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: antimicrobials, bacteria, catalytic, cavities, dental plaque, gum diseas, iron oxide nanoparticles, magnetic, magnetic field, shapeshifting robotic microswarm, toothbrush, University of Pennsylvania
July 5, 2022
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The idea of living for hundreds of years was once thought to be the pipe dream of billionaires and tech moguls. But scientists at the forefront of anti-ageing research believe they are on the cusp of developing a pill that could lead to people living to the age of 200 and beyond. Medical advances in the last century have led to humans in wealthy nations living into their 80s, almost double the average life expectancy at the turn of the 20th century.
Improved nutrition, clean water, better sanitation and huge leaps in medicine have been key in prolonging human life. The oldest known person — the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who sold canvases to Vincent Van Gogh when she was a girl in the late 1800s — lived to the age of 122, dying in 1997. There is some debate about whether humans can naturally live much beyond that age, but it is hoped that science will take human lifespans beyond what is currently thought possible.
Dr Andrew Steele, a British computational biologist and author of a new book on longevity, said there is no biological reason humans can’t reach the age of 200. He believes the big breakthrough will come in the form of drugs that remove ‘zombie cells‘ in the body, which are thought to be one of the main culprits of tissue and organ decay as we age. Pills that flush these cells out of the body are already in human trials in and could be on the market in as little as 10 years, according to Dr Steele, who believes someone reading this could make it to 150 with the help of the drugs.
Another field in particular that piques the interest of anti-ageing scientists is the study of DNA of reptiles and other cold-blooded animals. Michigan State University experts have begun studying dozens different types of long-living reptiles and amphibians — including crocodiles, salamanders and turtles that can live as long as 120 years. The team hope they will uncover ‘traits‘ that can also be targeted in humans.
Some experts think that eradicating the big killers — cancer, dementia and heart disease — could be the true key to longevity.
‘I don’t think there is any kind of absolute cap on how long we can live. ‘Studies come out every few years that propose some kind of fundamental limit on human lifespan, but they’re always missing one crucial piece: we’ve never tried treating the ageing process before. ‘I can’t see physical or biological reason why people couldn’t live to 200 — the challenge is whether we’ve can develop the biomedical science to make it possible.’ says Dr Steele, the author of Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: amphibians, anti-ageing, cancer, cells, dementia, DNA, heart disease, lifespan, longevity, pill, reptiles, zombie cells
July 4, 2022
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Until recently, CRISPR—the gene-editing technology that won scientists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry—sounded more like science fiction than medicine; lab-created molecular scissors are used to snip out problematic DNA sections in a patient’s cells to cure them of disease. But soon we could see regulators approve the very first treatment using this gene-editing technology in an effort to combat rare inherited blood disorders that affect millions across the globe.
In a $900 million collaboration, rare disease specialist Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics developed the therapy, dubbed exa-cel (short for exagamglogene autotemcel). It has already amassed promising evidence that it can help patients with beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease (SCD), both of which are genetic blood diseases that are relatively rare in the U.S. but somewhat more common inherited conditions globally.
Beta thalassemia is characterized by damaged or missing genes that cause the body to produce less hemoglobin (an essential protein that transports oxygen), potentially leading to enlargement of the liver, spleen, or heart, and malformed or brittle bones. It is estimated to afflict 1 in 100,000 people in the world, and regular blood transfusions are necessary to stave off its most serious effects.
While the exact statistics are unknown, SCD is estimated to affect 100,000 people in the U.S. and millions around the world; it is attributed to a defective gene that causes malformed hemoglobin that are stiff, sticky, and sickle-shaped (hence the name) and can thus block healthy blood cells from transporting oxygen around the body.
Exa-cel reportedly slashed the need for blood transfusions or incidence of serious, life-threatening medical events for months to years after patients received the treatment. New and impressive clinical trial results were announced at a major international medical conference in June and bolstered the companies’ prospect of producing the first gene-editing therapy of its kind to reach the broader market and patients.
The drug makers say they intend to submit exa-cel for regulatory approval in the U.S., U.K., and Europe by the end of this year, meaning the drug could receive marketing authorization sometime in 2023 as more and more biopharma companies pursue novel gene therapies.
Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: beta thalassemia, cells, CRISPR, CRISPR Therapeutics, exa-cel, exagamglogene autotemcel, Gene-editing, genetic blood diseases, hemoglobin, inherited blood disorders, oxygen, protein, SCD, sickle cell disease, Vertex
July 1, 2022
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A Northwestern University-led team of investigators has developed a small, soft, flexible implant that relieves pain on demand and without the use of drugs. Described in a study published in Science, the first-of-its-kind device could provide a much-needed alternative to opioids and other highly addictive medications.
The biocompatible, water-soluble device works by softly wrapping around nerves to deliver precise, targeted cooling, which numbs nerves and blocks pain signals to the brain. An external pump enables the user to remotely activate the device and then increase or decrease its intensity. After the device is no longer needed, it naturally absorbs into the body — bypassing the need for surgical extraction.
The scientists believe the device will be most valuable for patients who undergo routine surgeries or even amputations that commonly require post-operative medications. Surgeons could implant the device during the procedure to help manage the patient’s post-operative pain.
A Northwestern University-led team has developed a small, pain-relieving implant that could provide a much-needed alternative to opioids and other highly addictive medications.
“Although opioids are extremely effective, they also are extremely addictive,” said John Rogers, PhD, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery, who led the device’s development. Jonathan Reeder, former postdoctoral fellow in the Rogers laboratory, is the paper’s first author.
“As engineers, we are motivated by the idea of treating pain without drugs — in ways that can be turned on and off instantly, with user control over the intensity of relief,” said Rogers, who is also the founding director of the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics. “The technology reported here exploits the mechanism that causes your fingers to feel number when cold. Our implant allows that effect to be produced in a programmable way, directly and locally to targeted nerves, even those deep within surrounding soft tissues.”
While other cooling therapies and nerve blockers have been tested experimentally, all have limitations that the new device overcomes. Previously, scientists have explored cryotherapies, for example, which are injected with a needle. Instead of targeting specific nerves, these imprecise approaches cool large areas of tissue, potentially leading to unwanted effects such as tissue damage and inflammation.
At its widest point, the tiny device is just five millimeters wide. One end is curled into a cuff that softly wraps around a single nerve, bypassing the need for sutures. By precisely targeting only the affected nerve, the device spares surrounding regions from unnecessary cooling, which could lead to side effects.
“You don’t want to inadvertently cool other nerves or the tissues that are unrelated to the nerve transmitting the painful stimuli,” MacEwan said. “We want to block the pain signals, not the nerves that control motor function and enable you to use your hand, for example.”
Source: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: brain, drugs, Electrical Stimulation, implant, nerve blockers, nerves, Northwestern University, opioids, pain signals, pain-killer, stimuli
June 30, 2022
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A Colorado man made history at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) this summer when he became the first bilateral shoulder-level amputee to wear and simultaneously control two of the Laboratory’s Modular Prosthetic Limbs (MPL). Most importantly, Les Baugh, who lost both arms in an electrical accident 40 years ago, was able to operate the system by simply thinking about moving his limbs, performing a variety of tasks during a short training period.
Baugh was in town for two weeks in June as part of an APL-funded research effort to further assess the usability of the MPL, developed over the past decade as part of the Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program. Before putting the limb system through the paces, Baugh had to undergo a surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital known as targeted muscle reinnervation.
“It’s a relatively new surgical procedure that reassigns nerves that once controlled the arm and the hand,” explained Johns Hopkins Trauma Surgeon Albert Chi, M.D. “By reassigning existing nerves, we can make it possible for people who have had upper-arm amputations to control their prosthetic devices by merely thinking about the action they want to perform.”
After recovery, Baugh visited the Laboratory for training on the use of the MPLs. First, he worked with researchers on the pattern recognition system.
“We use pattern recognition algorithms to identify individual muscles that are contracting, how well they communicate with each other, and their amplitude and frequency,” Chi explained. “We take that information and translate that into actual movements within a prosthetic.”
Then Baugh was fitted for a custom socket for his torso and shoulders that supports the prosthetic limbs and also makes the neurological connections with the reinnervated nerves. , Advanced Arm Dynamics, the nation’s preeminent provider of comprehensive upper-limb prosthetic rehabilitation, designed and fit Baugh’s custom prosthetic socket. While the socket got its finishing touches, the team had him work with the limb system through a Virtual Integration Environment (VIE), a virtual-reality version of the MPL.
The VIE is completely interchangeable with the prosthetic limbs and through APL’s licensing process currently provides 19 groups in the research community with a low-cost means of testing brain-computer interfaces. It’s being used to test novel neural interface methods and study phantom limb pain, and serves as a portable training system.
By the time the socket was finished, Baugh said he was more than ready to get started. When he was fitted with the socket, and the prosthetic limbs were attached, he said “I just went into a whole different world.” He moved several objects, including an empty cup from a counter-shelf height to a higher shelf, a task that required him to coordinate the control of eight separate motions to complete.
“This task simulated activities that may commonly be faced in a day-to-day environment at home,” said APL’s Courtney Moran, a prosthetist working with Baugh. “This was significant because this is not possible with currently available prostheses. He was able to do this with only 10 days of training, which demonstrates the intuitive nature of the control.”
Source: https://www.jhuapl.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Advanced Arm Dynamics, APL, bilateral shoulder-level amputee, MPL, pattern recognition algorithms, phantom limb pain, prosthetic limbs, prosthetic socket, targeted muscle reinnervation, VIE, Virtual Integration Environment
June 29, 2022
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The Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd (CATL) unveiled an electric-car battery it said has a range of over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) on a single charge and is 13% more powerful than one planned by Tesla Inc., a major customer.
CATL, as the world’s biggest maker of electric-car batteries is known, will start manufacturing the next-generation “Qilin” next year, according to a video the Chinese company streamed online Thursday. The battery charges faster than existing cells, and is safer and more durable, CATL said.
The company claims that the EV battery, the Qilin, has a “record-breaking” volume utilisation efficiency of 72% and an energy density of up to 255 Wh/kg – achieving “the highest integration level worldwide so far” and is capable of delivering a range of 1,000 kilometres,
The Qilin battery – named after a legendary creature in Chinese mythology – supposedly offers breakthroughs in the core process, algorithm, and materials.
Source: https://thedriven.io/
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https://www.bloomberg.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: 2-D object-tracking algorithm, algorithm, battery, CATL, cells, China, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd, core process, electric car, electric-car batter, ev, materials, Qilin, Tesla
June 28, 2022
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In a bit of “reverse engineering” research using brain tissues from five people who died with Alzheimer’s disease, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they discovered that a special sugar molecule could play a key role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. If further research confirms the finding, the molecule, known as a glycan, could serve as a new target for early diagnostic tests, treatments and perhaps prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, say the researchers.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia in the United States. Affecting an estimated 5.8 million Americans, the progressive disorder occurs when nerve cells in the brain die due to the buildup of harmful forms of proteins called amyloid and tau.
Cleaning up the disease-causing forms of amyloid and tau is the job of the brain’s immune cells, called microglia. Earlier studies found that when cleanup is impaired, Alzheimer’s disease is more likely to occur. In some people, this is caused by an overabundance of a receptor on the microglia cells, called CD33.
A sugar molecule, known as a glycan, could serve as a new target for early diagnostic tests, treatments, and perhaps prevention of Alzheimer’s disease
“Receptors are not active on their own. Something needs to connect with them to block microglia from cleaning up these toxic proteins in the brain,” says Ronald Schnaar, Ph.D., the John Jacob Abel Professor of Pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the laboratory that led the study.
Past studies by the researchers showed that for CD33, these “connector” molecules are special sugars. Known to scientists as glycans, these molecules are ferried around the cell by specialized proteins that help them find their appropriate receptors. The protein-glycan combination is called a glycoprotein.
The study was published online April 20 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Source: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Alzheimer's, amyloid, CD33, cell, connector molecule, dementia, glycans, immune cells, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, microglia cells, protein, receptor, reverse engineering, sugar, tau
June 27, 2022
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Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a wearable textile exomuscle that serves as an extra layer of muscles. They aim to use it to increase the upper body strength and endurance of people with restricted mobility.
“My arms are simply getting weaker,” says Michael Hagmann, who was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy known as Bethlem myopathy back in 2016. To compensate for the lack of muscle strength in his arms, Hagmann adjusts his movements in a way that results in poor posture and strain. Marie Georgarakis, a former doctoral student at ETH Zurich’s Sensory Motor Systems Lab, is familiar with the problem. “Although hospitals have numerous good therapy devices, they are often very expensive and unwieldy. And there are few technical aids that patients can use directly in their everyday lives and draw on for assistance in performing exercises at home. We want to close this gap,” says Georgarakis.
This idea led to the creation of the Myoshirt: a soft, wearable exomuscle for the upper body. It is a kind of vest with cuffs for the upper arms accompanied by a small box containing all the technology that is not used directly on the body. Working via sensors embedded in the fabric, a smart algorithm detects the wearer’s intentional movements and the amount of force required. A motor then shortens a cable in the fabric running parallel to the wearer’s muscles – a sort of artificial tendon – and in this way supports the desired movement. This assistance is always in tune with the user’s movements and can be tailored to their individual preferences. The user is always in control and can override the device at any time.
The researchers have recently tested this prototype for the first time in a study featuring 12 participants: ten people without any physical impairments, one person with muscular dystrophy (Michael Hagmann) and one person with a spinal cord injury. The results were promising: all participants were able to lift their arms and/or objects for much longer thanks to the exomuscle. Endurance increased by about a third in the healthy subjects and by roughly 60% in the participant with muscular dystrophy, while the participant with a spinal cord injury was even able to perform the exercises three times as long. The exomuscle made it less taxing on their muscles, with the overwhelming majority of the participants finding the device intuitive to use.
Source: https://ethz.ch/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: algorithm, artificial tendon, endurance, ETH Zürich, exomuscle, exoskeleton, muscular dystrophy, Myoshirt, sensors, spinal cord injury
June 23, 2022
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Soon, retinal scans may be able to predict heart attacks. New research has found that decreased complexity in the blood vessels at the back of the retina in the human eye is an early biomarker for myocardial infarction.
“For decades, I’ve always lectured that the eye is not just the window to the soul, but the window to the brain and the window to the body as well,” said ophthalmologist Dr. Howard R. Krauss,
Cardiologist Dr. Rigved Tadwalkar, who was not involved in the research, said that the findings were interesting. “[A]lthough we have known that examination of retinal vasculature can produce insights on cardiovascular health, this study contributes to the evidence base that characteristics of the retinal vasculature can be used for individual risk prediction for myocardial infarction,” he said.
“The greatest appeal,” underlined Dr. Krauss, who was also not involved in the study, “is that the photography station may be remote to the clinician, and perhaps, someday, even accessible via a smartphone.”
According to a press release, the project utilized data from the UK Biobank, which contains demographic, epidemiological, clinical, and genotyping data, as well as retinal images, for more than 500,000 individuals. Under demographic data, the data included individuals’ age, sex, smoking habits, systolic blood pressure, and body-mass index (BMI). The researchers identified about 38,000 white-British participants, whose retinas had been scanned and who later had heart attacks. The biobank provided retinal fundus images and genotyping information for these individuals.
At the back of the retina, on either side where it connects to the optic nerve, are two large systems of blood vessels, or vasculature. In a healthy individual, each resembles a tree branch, with similarly complex fractal geometry. For some people, however, this complexity is largely absent, and branching is greatly simplified. In this research, an artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning model revealed a connection between low retinal vascular complexity and coronary artery disease.
The research was presented on June 12 at the European Society of Human Genetics.
Source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: : Blood vessels, AI, Artificial Intelligence, biomarker, BMI, body-mass index, deep learning, eye, genotyping, Heart attacks, myocardial infarction, remote, retinal scans, retinal vascular complexity, retinal vasculature, retinas, smartphone, systolic blood pressur, UK Biobank
June 22, 2022
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Plants are the original carbon capture factories—and a new research program aims to make them better ones by using gene editing. The Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), supported by a $11 million commitment from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), seeks to use CRISPR genome editing to enhance the natural ability of plants and soil microbes to both capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. Along with efforts to reduce existing sources of emissions, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) could play an increasingly important role in reducing the global impact from climate change and reversing its course, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In any discussion of CDR, it is often noted that we already have technologies that do this quite well: plants, microbes, and other living organisms, but they were optimized for a world without large amounts of excess carbon produced by human activities. The IGI project aims to enhance the natural carbon-removal abilities of living organisms to meet the scale of the climate change problem.
Over the past year, CZI has invested in the development of promising technologies to help address climate change at scale as part of an exploration of cutting-edge and emerging climate solutions, including CDR technologies. The IGI program is the latest recipient of support, and one of the first to apply CRISPR genome editing to the worldwide CDR effort.
Dr. Jill Banfield (right) working in California rice fields with her team (Bethany Kolody and Jack Kim) to analyze the soil microbes responsible for both emitting and storing carbon.
“We’re excited to support the Innovative Genomics Institute’s important research into new applications of gene-editing technology,” says CZI co-founder and co-CEO Dr. Priscilla Chan. “This technology has the potential to supercharge the natural abilities of plants, enabling them to pull more carbon out of the atmosphere and store more carbon in their roots and the surrounding soil — providing a new set of innovative tools to address climate change.”
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: atmosphere, carbon, carbon dioxide removal, CDR, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, climate change, CRISPR, czi, Gene-editing, genome editing, Innovative Genomics Institute, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, microbes, plants, soil
June 21, 2022
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Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in London have developed a new light-activated “photoimmunotherapy” that could help treat brain cancer. The key is a compound that glows under light to guide surgeons to the tumor, while near-infrared light activates a cancer-killing mechanism.
The new study builds on a common technique called Fluorescence Guided Surgery (FGS), which involves introducing a fluorescent agent to the body which glows under exposure to light. This is paired with a synthetic molecule that binds to a specific protein, such as those expressed by cancer cells. The end result is tumors that glow under certain lighting conditions or imaging, guiding surgeons to remove the affected cells more precisely.
For the new study, the researchers gave the technique an extra ability – killing the cancer as well. They added a new molecule that binds to a protein called EGFR, which is often mutated in cases of the brain cancer glioblastoma. After the fluorescence has helped surgeons remove the bulk of the tumor, they can shine near-infrared light on the site, which switches the compound into a tumor-killing mode by releasing reactive oxygen species. The idea is to kill off any remaining cells that could – and often do – stage an aggressive comeback after surgery.
In tests in mice with glioblastoma, the researchers showed that animals treated with the new technique had clear signs of tumor cell death in as little as one hour after exposure to near-infrared light. On top of that, the treatment also caused the animals’ immune systems to mount a new attack on the cancer, which could help reduce the chances of relapse.
“Our study shows that a novel photoimmunotherapy treatment using a combination of a fluorescent marker, ‘affibody’ protein and near-infrared light can both identify and treat leftover glioblastoma cells in mice,” said Dr. Gabriela Kramer-Marek, lead author of the study. “In the future, we hope this approach can be used to treat human glioblastoma and potentially other cancers too.”
The team says the technique could also eventually be used to treat other types of cancer. The research was published in the journal BMC Medicine.
Source: https://www.icr.ac.uk/
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https://newatlas.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: brain cancer, EGFR, FGS, fluorescence, Fluorescence Guided Surgery, Glioblastoma, Institute of Cancer Research, light-activated, near-infrared light, photoimmunotherapy, protein, relapse, tumor
June 20, 2022
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Shoji Takeuchi and colleagues from the Department of Mechano-Informatics and the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo have developed a method for coating a robotic finger with living human skin. Their findings were published in the journal Matter. Scientists believe a new class of skin-covered robots could more effectively interact with their human counterparts.
“There are three benefits to using living cells as a coating material for robots. First, by using the same skin material as humans, a more human-like appearance can be achieved. Second, the biological properties of cells can be used to provide robot skin with multimodal and multichannel sensing capabilities, self-repair capabilities, and metabolic capabilities that are difficult to achieve with artificial materials alone. Third, by using biological materials, robots can be made more environmentally friendly,” Takeuchi told Syfy Wire.
To get the skin onto the robotic appendage, scientists submerged it in a combination of collagen and human skin cells. Over time, the mixture attached itself to the finger, creating a first layer of skin. A second liquid containing keratinocyte cells — the dominant cells found in the epidermis — was then applied creating an outer layer. After a couple of weeks, the robotic finger had skin which was comparable in width to our own. Previous studies grew skin-like structures separately and later applied them to a synthetic surface. This new strategy has benefits over previous methods, in that it allows for the application of skin over uneven surfaces.
“We found that we could adapt the skin to the curved 3D surface shape by culturing it on site, rather than making it elsewhere and attaching it to the surface. By installing an appropriate anchor structure, the entire surface could be covered,” Takeuchi said.
At present, the skin does not deliver any sensory information to the robot, but the team is working on incorporating a nervous system for just that purpose. The skin also doesn’t include any circulatory system for delivering nutrients to the tissue. As a result, it needed external assistance to acquire nutrients and for the removal of waste products. That means it spent a considerable portion of its time in a bath of sugars and amino acids.
“We are conceiving strategies to build circulatory systems within the skin. Another challenge is to develop more sophisticated skin with skin-specific functions by reproducing various organs in the skin such as sensory neurons, hair follicles, nails, and sweat glands,” Takeuchi explained.
That’s not to say the skin isn’t impressive even as it exists today. The current version was able to stretch with the finger as it bent or straightened and even healed itself after injury. Researchers made a small cut on the surface of the finger and then applied a collagen bandage. The cells of the skin then connected to the bandage and incorporated it into the skin, healing the wound.
Of course, the process will need to be scaled up if researchers hope to cover an entire humanoid robot in convincing human skin. A robot with disconnected pieces of skin might be even more terrifying to its human acquaintances than one with no skin at all. Now, that would be a dystopian nightmare better left to our fictions.
Source: https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: amino acids, bandage, cells, collagen, collagen bandage, healing, Human skin, humanoid robot, interaction, keratinocyte cells, robot, skin-covered robots, sugar, University of Tokyo
June 17, 2022
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Many cancer treatments are notoriously savage on the body; they attack healthy cells at the same time as tumor cells, causing a plethora of side effects. Now, researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have designed a method to keep one promising cancer drug from wreaking such havoc. The team has engineered a new “masked” version of the immunotherapy drug interleukin-12 that is activated only when it reaches a tumor.
Researchers have long suspected that interleukin-12 could be a powerful cancer treatment, but it caused dangerous side effects. Now, Pritzker Molecular Engineering researchers have developed a version of the molecule not activated until it reaches a tumor, where it eradicates cancer cells.
“Our research shows that this masked version of IL-12 is much safer for the body, but it possesses the same anti-tumor efficacy as the original,” said Aslan Mansurov, a postdoctoral research fellow and first author of the new paper. He carried out the IL-12 engineering work with Jeffrey Hubbell, the Eugene Bell Professor in Tissue Engineering, who co-leads PME’s Immunoengineering research theme with professor Melody Swartz.
Researchers know that IL-12 potently activates lymphocytes, immune cells with the potential to destroy tumor cells. But, in the 1990s, early clinical trials of IL-12 were halted because of severe, toxic side effects in patients. The same immune activation that started a cascade of events killing cancer cells also led to severe inflammation throughout the body. IL-12, at least in its natural form, was shelved.
The research on the molecule, also known as IL-12, is described in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
But Mansurov, Hubbell, Swartz, and colleagues had an idea to reinvigorate the possibility of IL-12. What if the drug could slip through the body without activating the immune system? They designed a “masked” molecule with a cap covering the section of IL-12 which normally binds immune cells. The cap can be removed only by tumor-associated proteases, a set of molecular scissors found in the vicinity of tumors to help them degrade surrounding healthy tissue. When the proteases chop off the cap, the IL-12 becomes active, able to spur an immune response against the tumor.
“The masked IL-12 is largely inactive everywhere in the body except at the site of the tumor, where these proteases can cleave off the mask,” explained Mansurov.
Source: https://pme.uchicago.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: cancer, drug, healthy cells, IL-12, immune cells, immunotherapy drug, interleukin-12, lymphocytes, molecule, PME, side effects, tumor, tumor cells, University of Chicago
June 16, 2022
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Researchers investigated a new potential treatment that combines the medications ramucirumab and pembrolizumab for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. They found this combination increased survival rates by 31% compared to the current standard of care.
The scientists say that their results warrant further investigation of this possible new treatment. Advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 84% Trusted Source of all lung cancer cases. The American Cancer Society estimated that in 2022, there will be around 236,740 new cases of lung cancer and around 130,180 deaths from the condition in the United States alone. The 5-year survival rate of NSCLC lies between 8 and 37% Trusted Source due to limited Trusted Source effective treatment options.
Research focusing on new treatment options for NSCLC could help improve survival rates and patient outcomes. Recently, researchers conducted a randomized phase II study for a combination of drugs: ramucirumab and pembrolizumab (RP). Ramucirumab is a vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) inhibitor and works by blocking enzymes needed to form blood vessels. Pembrolizumab, on the other hand, is an immunotherapy drug known as an immune checkpoint inhibitor.
From the study, the team found that patients treated with RP experienced an increased survival rate of 31% compared to patients on current standard-of-care (SOC) treatments involving immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) and platinum-based chemotherapy.
“This is an interesting randomized phase II study on 136 patients who had failed prior immunotherapy and platinum-based chemotherapy, explained Prof. Tony Mok, chairman of the Department of Clinical Oncology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today.
“The concept of anti-VEGF(R) in combination with immunotherapy is not novel. IMpower150 is the largest phase III study [on such treatments to date, and has] demonstrated efficacy of the taxol/carbo/atezo/bevacizumab being superior to taxol/carbo/bevacizumab as first-line therapy,” he added.
“The current study provides the first hint of efficacy of such combination for [advanced non-small cell lung cancer] patients with prior exposure to immunotherapy.”
concluded Prof. Tony Mok.
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Chinese University of Hong Kong, ICI, immune checkpoint inhibitor, immunotherapy drug, inhibition, lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, NSCLC, pembrolizumab, platinum-based chemotherapy, ramucirumab, RP, SOC, standard-of-care, VEGFR-2
June 15, 2022
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Since the start of the Russian invasion, the US and its NATO and European allies have sent Ukraine security, economic, and humanitarian aid worth tens of billions of dollars. Assistance to the embattled Ukrainians has come from the general public and private sector too. One of the most notable contributions has been that of Starlink, a satellite communication system run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
SpaceX says it has delivered 15,000 Starlink kits to Ukraine since late February. The devices provide the Ukrainian military with a resilient and reliable means of communication. Ukrainian troops have used them to coordinate counterattacks or call in artillery support, while Ukrainian civilians have used the system to stay in touch with loved ones inside and outside of the country.
Besieged Ukrainian troops in the plant in Mariupol Azovstal steelworks were only able to communicate with Kyiv and the world because they had a Starlink device.
https://www.businessinsider.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Azovstal steelworks, Elon Musk, NATO, private sector, Russian invasion, Space X, Starlink, Ukraine, war
June 14, 2022
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By making a few genetic tweaks using CRISPR technology, scientists have designed a special sun-dried tomato packed to the leaves with vitamin D. The flesh and peel of the fruit were genetically engineered to contain the same vitamin D levels as two eggs or 28 grams of tuna, both of which are currently recommended sources of the vital nutrient.
Researchers used gene editing to turn off a specific molecule in the plant’s genome which increased provitamin D3 in both the fruit and leaves of tomato plants. It was then converted to vitamin D3 through exposure to UVB light. Vitamin D is created in our bodies after skin’s exposure to UVB light, but the major source is food. This new biofortified crop could help millions of people with vitamin D insufficiency, a growing issue linked to higher risk of cancer, dementia, and many leading causes of mortality. Studies have also shown that vitamin D insufficiency is linked to increased severity of infection by Covid-19.
Tomatoes naturally contain one of the building blocks of vitamin D3, called provitamin D3 or 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC), in their leaves at very low levels. Provitamin D3, does not normally accumulate in ripe tomato fruits. Researchers in Professor Cathie Martin’s group at the John Innes Centre (in UK) used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to make revisions to the genetic code of tomato plants so that provitamin D3 accumulates in the tomato fruit. The leaves of the edited plants contained up to 600 ug of provitamin D3 per gram of dry weight. The recommended daily intake of vitamin d is 10 ug for adults. When growing tomatoes leaves are usually waste material, but those of the edited plants could be used for the manufacture of vegan-friendly vitamin D3 supplements, or for food fortification.
“We’ve shown that you can biofortify tomatoes with provitamin D3 using gene editing, which means tomatoes could be developed as a plant-based, sustainable source of vitamin D3,” said Professor Cathie Martin, corresponding author of the study which appears in Nature Plants. “Forty percent of Europeans have vitamin D insufficiency and so do one billion people world-wide. We are not only addressing a huge health problem, but are helping producers, because tomato leaves which currently go to waste, could be used to make supplements from the gene-edited lines.”
Previous research has studied the biochemical pathway of how 7-DHC is used in the fruit to make molecules and found that a particular enzyme Sl7-DR2 is responsible for converting this into other molecules. To take advantage of this the researchers used CRISPR-Cas 9 to switch off this Sl7-DR2 enzyme in tomato so that the 7DHC accumulates in the tomato fruit. The researchers then tested whether the 7-DHC in the edited plants could be converted to vitamin D3 by shining UVB light on leaves.
After treatment with UVB light to turn the 7-DHC into Vitamin D3, one tomato contained the equivalent levels of vitamin D as two medium sized eggs or 28g tuna – which are both recommended dietary sources of vitamin D. The study says that vitamin D in ripe fruit might be increased further by extended exposure to UVB, for example during sun-drying.
Source: https://www.jic.ac.uk/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: 7-dehydrocholesterol, 7-DHC, biofortified crop, cancer, CRISPR, dementia, enzyme Sl7-DR2, FLESH, food, Gene-editing, genetic tweaks, genome, John Innes Centre, peel, tomatoes, UVB light, vegan, vitamin D3
June 13, 2022
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Most people don’t think much about the food scraps they throw away; however, investigators from the Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo have developed a new method to reduce food waste by recycling discarded fruit and vegetable scraps into robust construction materials.
Worldwide industrial and household food waste amounts to hundreds of billions of kilos per year, a large proportion of which comprises edible scraps, like fruit and vegetable peels. This unsustainable practice is both costly and environmentally unfriendly, so researchers have been searching for new ways to recycle these organic materials into useful products.
“Our goal was to use seaweed and common food scraps to construct materials that were at least as strong as concrete,” explains Yuya Sakai, the senior author of the study. “But since we were using edible food waste, we were also interested in determining whether the recycling process impacted the flavor of the original materials.”
The researchers borrowed a “heat pressing” concept that is typically used to make construction materials from wood powder, except they used vacuum-dried, pulverized food scraps, such as seaweed, cabbage leaves, and orange, onion, pumpkin, and banana peels as the constituent powders. The processing technique involved mixing the food powder with water and seasonings, and then pressing the mixture into a mold at high temperature. The researchers tested the bending strength of the resulting materials and monitored their taste, smell, and appearance.
Source: https://www.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: banana peels, cabbage leaves, construction materials, edible scraps, food scraps, food waste, fruit, heat pressing, materials, onion, orange, organic materials, peels, pumpkin, seasonings, seaweed, The University of Tokyo, vegetables, wood powder
June 10, 2022
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Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest of cancers, with few treatment options. Now, an mRNA vaccine treatment, called autogene cevumeran, that is tailored to each individual’s cancer has produced promising results in a small initial trial.
In the trial, 16 people were given the vaccine around nine weeks after having an operation to remove their tumours. In eight, the vaccine didn’t elicit an effective immune response and their cancers returned. But in the other eight, the vaccine resulted in a good response and they remained cancer-free 18 months later. The results were announced by the vaccine’s developer, BioNTech, on 5 June.
This is a very small initial trial. Larger and longer trials will be needed to confirm the result. The trial only involved people whose cancers were detected early enough that they could undergo an operation to remove tumours before they spread to other parts of the body. Only around 10 per cent of people are diagnosed at this stage, says Chris Macdonald, head of research at charity Pancreatic Cancer UK. In other words, even if larger trials confirm these initial results, it remains to be seen if this vaccine can help people with more advanced pancreatic cancer – though that is, of course, the hope.
The problem is that the symptoms of pancreatic cancer are vague, says Macdonald. By the time it is detected, 70 per cent of people are so ill that it is too late for any treatment.
Source: https://www.newscientist.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: autogene cevumeran, BionTech, mRNA vaccine, pancreatic cancer, tumour
June 9, 2022
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Whatever one thinks of nuclear energy, the process results in tons of radioactive, toxic waste no one quite knows what to do with. As a result, it’s tucked away as safely as possible in underground storage areas where it’s meant to remain a long, long time: The worst of it, uranium 235 and plutonium 239, have a half life of 24,000 years. That’s the reason eyebrows were raised in Europe — where more countries depend on nuclear energy than anywhere else — when physicist Gérard Mourou mentioned in his wide-ranging Nobel acceptance speech that lasers could cut the lifespan of nuclear waste from “a million years to 30 minutes,” as he put it in a followup interview with The Conversation.
Who is Gérard Mourou? Mourou was the co-recipient of his Nobel with Donna Strickland for their development of Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) at the University of Rochester. In his speech, he referred to his “passion for extreme light.”
CPA produces high-intensity, super-short optical pulses that pack a tremendous amount of power. Mourou’s and Strickland’s goal was to develop a means of making highly accurate cuts useful in medical and industrial settings. It turns out CPA has another benefit, too, that’s just as important. Its attosecond pulses are so quick that they shine a light on otherwise non-observable, ultra-fast events such as those inside individual atoms and in chemical reactions. This capability is what Mourou hopes give CPA a chance of neutralizing nuclear waste, and he’s actively working out a way to make this happen in conjunction with Toshiki Tajima of UC Irvine.
“Take the nucleus of an atom. It is made up of protons and neutrons. If we add or take away a neutron, it changes absolutely everything. It is no longer the same atom, and its properties will completely change. The lifespan of nuclear waste is fundamentally changed, and we could cut this from a million years to 30 minutes!,” explains Mourou.
We are already able to irradiate large quantities of material in one go with a high-power laser, so the technique is perfectly applicable and, in theory, nothing prevents us from scaling it up to an industrial level. This is the project that I am launching in partnership with the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, or CEA, in France. We think that in 10 or 15 years’ time we will have something we can demonstrate. This is what really allows me to dream, thinking of all the future applications of our invention.”
While 15 years may seem a long time, when you’re dealing with the half-life of nuclear waste, it’s a blink of an eye.
Source: https://www.freethink.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Chirped Pulse Amplification, CPA, Gerard MOUROU, laser, nuclear energy, nuclear waste, optical pulses, UC Irvine, University of Rochester
June 8, 2022
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Anyone who has more money than they know what to do with eventually tries to cure aging. Google founder Larry Page has tried it. Jeff Bezos has tried it. Tech billionaires Larry Ellison and Peter Thiel have tried it. Now the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has about as much money as all of them put together, is going to try it. The Saudi royal family has started a not-for-profit organization called the Hevolution Foundation that plans to spend up to $1 billion a year of its oil wealth supporting basic research on the biology of aging and finding ways to extend the number of years people live in good health, a concept known as “health span.”
The sum, if the Saudis can spend it, could make the Gulf state the largest single sponsor of researchers attempting to understand the underlying causes of aging—and how it might be slowed down with drugs. The foundation hasn’t yet made a formal announcement, but the scope of its effort has been outlined at scientific meetings and is the subject of excited chatter among aging researchers, who hope it will underwrite large human studies of potential anti-aging drugs. The fund is managed by Mehmood Khan, a former Mayo Clinic endocrinologist and the onetime chief scientist at PespsiCo, who was recruited to the CEO job in 2020. ““Our primary goal is to extend the period of healthy lifespan,” Khan said in an interview. “There is not a bigger medical problem on the planet than this one.”
The idea, popular among some longevity scientists, is that if you can slow the body’s aging process, you can delay the onset of multiple diseases and extend the healthy years people are able to enjoy as they grow older. Khan says the fund is going to give grants for basic scientific research on what causes aging, just as others have done, but it also plans to go a step further by supporting drug studies, including trials of “treatments that are patent expired or never got commercialized.”
“We need to translate that biology to progress towards human clinical research. Ultimately, it won’t make a difference until something appears in the market that actually benefits patients,” Khan says.
Khan says the fund is authorized to spend up to $1 billion per year indefinitely, and will be able to take financial stakes in biotech companies. By comparison, the division of the US National Institute on Aging that supports basic research on the biology of aging spends about $325 million a year.
Hevolution hasn’t announced what projects it will back, but people familiar with the group say it looked at funding a $100 million X Prize for age reversal technology and has reached a preliminary agreement to fund a test of the diabetes drug metformin in several thousand elderly people.
Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: aging, diabetes, drug, health span, Hevolution Foundation, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Mayo Clinic, metformin, PespsiCo, Peter Thiel, TAME, Targeting Aging with Metformin
June 7, 2022
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Karina Gasbarrino, a McGill University PhD graduate has dedicated her career to enhancing the early prediction and prevention of strokes, and she created a tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) that does just that. This week, her work won her the Mitacs Social Entrepreneurship Award, a national innovation award presented to an applicant whose start-up works to address or solve social, cultural or humanitarian issues. Gasbarrino said this recognition means a lot to her, as she chose to delve into this kind of research based on a personal experience.
Harmful fatty deposits in the arteries of the neck, called plaques, are the main cause of strokes when ruptured
“It really started off because we have a family history of cardiovascular disease,” Gasbarrino said. “I ended up losing my grandfather over 10 years ago due to a stroke.” “It was really instantaneous, like one minute he was here, the next he was not. And so that really impacted me and my family and it gave me the drive to want to go into research and really understand what causes these strokes and how we could better predict and prevent them.”
Gasbarrino is the co-founder and COO of digital health start-up PLAKK, a software which uses image analysis technology to more accurately examine harmful fatty deposits in the arteries of the neck, called plaques, which, when ruptured, are the main cause of strokes. “What we’re trying to do with our technology is provide clinicians with more information about those plaques … and by understanding that, we can better determine whether a patient is at risk of having a stroke,” she said.
According to Gasbarrino, as it stands, there is no blood test that can used to detect plaques in the neck artery. Imaging is required, but even then, there’s no tool to determine what that plaque is composed of or how dangerous it is. “That’s why we’re developing the technology,” she said. “We want to be able to intervene and get patients the treatment that they need before they end up having a stroke.”
The tool is currently in the validation phase and the team is working to get regulatory approval in the coming six months. The hope is to have the technology implemented in a few centres across Canada as well as some in the U.S. by early 2023. Gasbarrino said the development of this technology would not have been possible without the support of her PhD supervisor, Dr. Stella S. Daskalopoulou, a clinician-scientist at the Montreal University Health Centre, as well as Kashif Khan, another recent PhD graduate from McGill University involved in the project.
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Karina Gasbarrino, McGill University, Mitacs Social Entrepreneurship Award, neck artery, PLAKK, plaque, stroke
June 6, 2022
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State officials green-flagged the launch of a fare-based ride-hailing business featuring cars with no human driver at the wheel. Robot-operated Chevy Bolt EVs will be rolled out over the next few weeks by autonomous vehicle maker Cruise. The San Francisco company, owned by General Motors, wouldn’t say how many.
With a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission, Cruise becomes the first commercial robotaxi business in the state and the second in the U.S. The first was launched in 2020 by Alphabet-owned Waymo in Chandler, Ariz. Although driverless cars have been prowling San Francisco streets for years, to date they’ve either been staffed with human safety drivers or, if fully driverless, occupied by company employees.
Potential customers of the new service can download an app for the service, the company said, but may not be approved for a while until the number of Cruise robotaxis deployed in San Francisco increases. Fares will be similar to what ride-hailing companies charge, the company said.
https://www.latimes.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Alphabet, California Public Utilities Commission, California’, Chevy Bolt, Cruise, driverless car, fare-based ride-hailing, General Motors, Robotaxi, San Francisco, Waymo
June 3, 2022
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In what the company is calling a “groundbreaking reconstructive procedure,” 3DBio Therapeutics has transplanted a 3D-printed ear made of living cells. The reconstruction is the first in-human phase of the clinical trial for the implant, called AuriNovo, and appears to be the first 3D-printed implant made of living tissues.
The implant is specifically for patients with microtia, a rare congenital ailment where the outer ear is either underdeveloped or doesn’t exist at all. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s hard to estimate just how many people are impacted because of the range of the ailment varies, but estimates show that the birth defect impacts about 1 in every 2,000 to 10,000 in the U.S. The cause, in most cases, is unknown, although some cases are caused by genetic changes or the use of isotretinoin, or Accutane medication, during pregnancy.
The patient who received the transplant is a 20-year-old woman from Mexico whose right ear is impacted by the ailment. She received the surgery in March, and will continue to be monitored for five years, a spokesperson for 3DBio said.
Dr. Arturo Bonilla, a pediatric surgeon at the Congenital Ear Institute, the largest pediatric microtia center in North America, led the transplant. In a statement, he said that he’s “inspired” by what the advancement could mean for microtia patients.
Traditionally, doctors have to harvest rib cartilage or use porous polyethylene (PPE) implants to do this kind of transplant, both of which come with a set of challenges. Using rib cartilage, for example, requires a substantial harvest from at least three ribs and typically must be done in at least two separate hours-long procedures. It could result in a chest deformity, and the implants are rigid and can cause discomfort. PPE implants typically requires taking a large section of skin from a patient’s scalp, and because the implant is not made of biological material, there is early risk for infection and later risk of implant changes, discomfort and even a risk of the implant shattering.
Using a patient’s own cartilage cells is less invasive, and according to Bonilla, will allow for a more flexible ear. He also said that for those who have microtia, getting such a surgery can drastically help with their self-esteem. While it is not believed to impact hearing, it does offer an aesthetic relief.
This image shows what the 20-year-old patient’s ear looked like both before and after she received the 3D-bioprinted transplant.
“An issue that becomes more prominent is bullying or teasing. Children don’t understand that they’re hurting somebody else’s feelings, but it really does affect them in a major way. And that’s usually when they start coming to my office, so that I can start taking care of them and helping them and advising them as far as what are the next options,” Bonilla said. “…The new technology with AuriNovo is exciting. I’ve actually been waiting for this my whole career.”
To create the new appendage, doctors conducted a biopsy on the ear of the patient that was impacted and extracted chondrocytes, the cells that create cartilage. Those cells were then expanded and mixed with what the company calls ColVivo collagen-based bio-ink before being molded with a 3D bioprinter into the size and shape of the patient’s opposite ear.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: 3D printing, 3DBio, 3DBio Therapeutics, AuriNovo, bio-ink, cartilage, cells, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chondrocytes, Congenital Ear Institute, ear, implant, isotretinoin, microtia, porous polyethylene, PPE, rib cartilage, ribs
June 2, 2022
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Activating the immune system at the site of a tumor can recruit and stimulate immune cells to destroy tumor cells. One strategy involves injecting immune-stimulating molecules directly into the tumor, but this method can be challenging for cancers that are not easily accessible. Now, Stanford researchers have developed a new synthetic molecule that combines a tumor-targeting agent with another molecule that triggers immune activation. This tumor-targeted immunotherapy can be administered intravenously and makes its way to one or multiple tumor sites in the body, where it recruits immune cells to fight the cancer.
Three doses of this new immunotherapy prolonged the survival of six of nine laboratory mice with an aggressive triple negative breast cancer. Of the six, three appeared cured of their cancer over the duration of the monthslong study. A single dose of this molecule induced complete tumor regression in five of 10 mice. The synthetic molecule showed similar results in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer.
An immunotherapy molecule administered intravenously to mice was shown to target tumors.
“We essentially cured some animals with just a few injections,” said Jennifer Cochran, PhD, the Shriram Chair of the Department of Bioengineering. “It was pretty astonishing. When we looked within the tumors, we saw they went from a highly immunosuppressive microenvironment to one full of activated B and T cells — similar to what happens when the immune-stimulating molecule is injected directly into the tumor. So, we’re achieving intra-tumoral injection results but with an IV deliver.”
A paper describing the study published online in Cell Chemical Biology. The lead authors are Stanford graduate student Caitlyn Miller and instructor of medicine Idit Sagiv-Barfi, PhD.
Source: https://med.stanford.edu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: aggressive triple negative breast cancer, cancers, immune cells, immune system, immunotherapy, molecules, Stanford, synthetic molecule, tumor cells
June 1, 2022
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The most powerful supercomputers on the planet are used to perform all manner of complex operations. Increasingly, they are used to enable artificial intelligence for research that could one day impact billions of people. The world’s fastest and most powerful high-performance computing (HPC) supercomputers are front and center at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC).
“HPC plus AI is really the transformational tool of scientific computing,” Dion Harris, Nvidia marketing manager for accelerated computing, said in a media briefing ahead of ISC. “We talk about exascale AI because we do believe that this is going to be one of the key pivotal tools to drive scientific innovation and any data center that’s building a supercomputer needs to understand how their system will perform from an AI standpoint.”
Los Alamos National Laboratory and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) are building Venado, which is the first U.S. based supercomputer to use the Grace chip architecture. The Venado supercomputer uses a combination of Grace and Grace Hopper superchips, in a system that is expected to deliver 10 exaflops of AI performance. The Venado system will be used for material science, renewable energy, as well as energy distribution research.
As people around the world try to find solutions to the challenges of global warming, one of the primary strategies is to identify renewable energy sources. One such source could be nuclear reactors. Today’s nuclear reactors are fission-based and generate radioactive waste. The promise of fusion is that it can deliver large amounts of energy, without the same waste as fission. The U.K. Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) is using the Nvidia Omniverse simulation platform to accelerate the design and development of a full-scale fusion reactor. “With the Nvidia Omniverse, researchers could potentially build a fully functioning digital twin of a reactor, helping ensure the most efficient designs are selected for construction,” Harris said.
The goal for Omniverse and the digital twin is to have an AI-generated replica of the fusion reactor system. The U.K. AEA is also planning to simulate the physics of the Fusion plasma containment itself. “The holy grail of fusion energy is being able to not just create a fusion reaction, but have it be sustainable,” Harris added. “We really think this will be a path towards sustainable energy.”
Source: https://venturebeat.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: AI, AI-generated replica, Artificial Intelligence, Atomic Energy Authority, fission, fusion, Fusion plasma containment, global warming, Grace Hopper superchips, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, high-performance computing, HPC, International Supercomputing Conference, ISC, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nvidia, Nvidia Omniverse, radioactive waste, renewable energy, Venado
May 31, 2022
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Imagine you have to make a speech, but instead of looking down at your notes, the words scroll in front of your eyes, whichever direction you look in. That’s just one of many features the makers of smart contact lenses promise will be available in the future.
“Imagine… you’re a musician with your lyrics, or your chords, in front of your eyes. Or you’re an athlete and you have your biometrics and your distance and other information that you need,” says Steve Sinclair, from Mojo, which is developing smart contact lenses.
His company is about to embark on comprehensive testing of smart contact lens on humans, that will give the wearer a heads-up display that appears to float in front of their eyes.
The product’s scleral lens (a larger lens that extends to the whites of the eye) corrects the user’s vision, but also incorporates a tiny microLED display, smart sensors and solid-state batteries. “We’ve built what we call a feature-complete prototype that actually works and can be worn – we’re soon going to be testing that [out] internally,” says Mr Sinclair. “Now comes the interesting part, where we start to make optimisations for performance and power, and wear it for longer periods of time to prove that we can wear it all day.”
Other smart lenses are being developed to collect health data. Lenses could “include the ability to self-monitor and track intra-ocular pressure, or glucose,” says Rebecca Rojas, instructor of optometric science at Columbia University. Glucose levels for example, need to be closely monitored by people with diabetes. “They can also provide extended-release drug-delivery options, which is beneficial in diagnosis and treatment plans. It’s exciting to see how far technology has come, and the potential it offers to improve patients’ lives.“
Research is underway to build lenses that can diagnose and treat medical conditions from eye conditions, to diabetes, or even cancer by tracking certain biomarkers such as light levels, cancer-related molecules or the amount of glucose in tears. A team at the University of Surrey, for example, has created a smart contact lens that contains a photo-detector for receiving optical information, a temperature sensor for diagnosing potential corneal disease and a glucose sensor monitoring the glucose levels in tear fluid.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/
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