Articles from September 2021

Researchers at the University of Southampton have invented a new way to generate human cartilage tissue from stem cells. The technique could pave the way for the development of a much-needed new treatment for people with cartilage damage. Cartilage acts as a shock absorber in joints, but it is susceptible to damage through daily wear-and-tear, or trauma from sports injuries and falls. The current gold-standard surgical approach to restore regions of damaged cartilage, using cartilage cells, is not wholly successful. This is because survival of the repair tissue, generated by cartilage cells at the site of damage, has been shown to decrease significantly after 5-10 years. As such, there is a need for a new way to promote robust, long-term repair through the implantation of cartilage tissue, as opposed to cartilage cells, at the site of damage.

Scientists at the Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration think they may have found the answer. They generated cartilage tissue in the laboratory by successfully differentiating embryonic stem cells into cartilage cells, and then used these to generate three-dimensional pieces of cartilage tissue without any synthetic or natural supporting materials. This is known as a ‘scaffold-free’ cartilage tissue engineering technique. The generated cartilage tissue is structurally and mechanically comparable to normal human cartilage with the potential to form a stable and longer lasting repair than current treatment options available to patients.

The researchers are the first to use the scaffold-free technique to generate cartilage tissue, which is scaled up beyond 1 mm without adversely affecting its structural and mechanical properties.  The team hopes that eventually, after more research is conducted, this lab created tissue could be routinely used in surgery to mend damaged cartilage.

The interdisciplinary study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, was led by Dr Franchesca Houghtonand Dr Rahul Tare from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton.

“This research is exciting as our ability to generate cartilage with properties akin to normal human cartilage has the potential to provide a robust tissue engineered product for cartilage repair,” said Dr Houghton.

“This tissue-based approach of replacing ‘like-for-like’ has the potential to constitute a step-change improvement in current cell-based surgical approaches for repairing damaged cartilage and improve long-term patient outcomes,” adds Dr Tare.

Source: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/

Humans can probably live to at least 130, and possibly well beyond, though the chances of reaching such super old age remain vanishingly small, according to new research. The outer limit of the human lifespan has long been hotly debated, with recent studies making the case we could live up to 150 years, or arguing that there is no maximum theoretical age for humans.

The new research, published Wednesday in the Royal Society Open Science journal, wades into the debate by analyzing new data on supercentenarians – people aged 110 or more – and semi-supercentenarians, aged 105 or more.While the risk of death generally increases throughout our lifetime, the researchers’ analysis shows that risk eventually plateaus and remains constant at approximately 50-50.

“Beyond age 110 one can think of living another year as being almost like flipping a fair coin,” said Anthony Davison, a professor of statistics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), who led the research. “If it comes up heads, then you live to your next birthday, and if not, then you will die at some point within the next year,” he told AFP. Based on the data available so far, it seems likely that humans can live until at least 130, but extrapolating from the findings “would imply that there is no limit to the human lifespan,” the research concludes.

The conclusions match similar statistical analyses done on datasets of the very elderly. “But this study strengthens those conclusions and makes them more precise because more data are now available,” Davison said.

Source: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/
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https://www.sciencealert.com/

Sanatech Seed, the Japanese start-up behind the launch of the world’s first direct consumption genome-edited tomato, says the variety is the first of several it plans to develop with enhanced nutritional benefits. The company’s Sicilian Rouge High GABA tomato was developed using cutting edge CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology. It contains high levels of Gamma-AminoButyric Acid (GABA), an amino acid believed to aid relaxation and help lower blood pressure.

According to Shimpei Takeshita, president of Sanatech Seed and chief innovation officer of Pioneer EcoScience, the exclusive distributor of the tomato, it contains four to five times more GABA than a regular tomato.

“This tomato represents an easy and realistic way in which consumers can improve their daily diet,” he told delegates during a session on how to breed better tomatoes at this year’s Global Tomato Congress.

Takeshita said the reason for choosing both the Sicilian Rouge variety and the GABA trait was their high level of acceptance by consumers. “Sicilian Rouge is a popular tomato, and consumers are already used to buying other products with a high GABA content so we felt it was important to introduce them to the technology in a way that was already familiar to them,” he explained.

Dr Hiroshi Ezura, CTO of Sanatech Seed, told the congress that CRISPR/Cas9 is simpler and easier to handle than other gene editing techniques, making it ideal for developing crops with enhanced nutritional characteristics. Rules in Japan allow products developed using gene editing to be sold providing the necessary approval has been sought from the regulatory agencies. “With GMOs you need to produce a lot of data in order to get regulatory approval by the government, while with gene editing, you still need to notify the government but the amount of data you have to produce is a lot lower,” Ezura explained. There have been widespread marketing campaigns in Japan to educate consumers about the difference between GMOs and gene-edited crops, so there is a higher level of understanding and acceptance of these products than in other parts of the world.

Source: http://www.fruitnet.com

Samsung and Harvard University have published new research that suggests it is possible to develop a brain-inspired memory chip.

In a perspective paper published in Nature Electronics, the researchers from the partnering organisations proposed that the brain’s neuronal connection map could be copied using nanoelectrode array. They specified that the nanoelectrode array could be used to record the electrical signals produced by the large number of neurons found in the brain. The recordings could then be used to inform the neuronal map by indicating where neurons connect with one another and how strong the connections are, the researchers claimed.

Once copied, the neuronal map could then be pasted onto a high-density three-dimensional network of solid-state memory, such as commercial flash memory used in solid-state drives or resistive RAM.

Ultimately, the memory chip would contain traits of the brain, such as low power, facile learning, adaption to environment, autonomy, and cognition, the researchers said. The paper also suggests one possible way to speed up pasting the neuronal map is by directly downloading the map onto a memory chip.

“The vision we present is highly ambitious,” Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology fellow Donhee Ham. “But working toward such a heroic goal will push the boundaries of machine intelligence, neuroscience, and semiconductor technology.”

Looking ahead, Samsung plans to continue its research into neuromorphic engineering as part of its development of AI semiconductors.

Source: https://news.samsung.com/
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https://www.zdnet.com/

The race is on for car manufacturers to bring out their own range on electric vehicles (EV). But what if the new kid on the block ends up taking over? Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota are among the major firms now testing out hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in their production lines to see which proves the most successful.

FCEVs have been criticized for being less efficient as only around 55 percent of the hydrogen energy created through electrolysis is usable, compared to between 70 and 80 percent in battery-electric cars. However, there are several advantages to fuel cells, including low recharge times – just a matter of minutes, and long-range. But several practical obstacles stand in the way of hydrogen FCEVs, such as the lack of charging infrastructure in contrast to the ever-expanding EV infrastructure. For example, at the beginning of 2021 there were only 12 hydrogen fuelling stations in the U.K., not surprising as only two brands of FCEV were on the market – the Toyota Mirai and the Hyundai Nexo.

In addition, hydrogen is currently much more expensive than electric fuel, costing around £60 for a 300-mile tank. Moreover, much of the hydrogen on the market comes from the excess carbon produced from fossil fuels by using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Yet, the disadvantages of battery EVs should not be overlooked. After years of investment, it is unlikely that we will see major advances in battery technology any time soon. Not to forget that lithium-ion batteries are heavy, making them near-impossible to use in freight and aviation. The metals used in existing battery production, such as cobalt and nickel, are also problematic due to ethical mining concerns as well a high costs adding to the overall price of price of EVs.
Source: https://oilprice.com/

For patients with kidney failure, dialysis is a double-edged sword: while offering the promise of sustained life, it is an invasive procedure that is also dangerous, sometimes causing bone disease, high-blood pressure and heart failure.

A new device is offering hope for those requiring dialysis. Currently being developed by The Kidney Project, this bioartificial kidney implant could free patients from dialysis machines and even kidney transplants. Last week, scientists won a $650,000 prize for the successful demonstration of a working prototype—moving the device a step closer to potentially changing the lives of millions of people suffering from life-threatening kidney diseases.

The effort is led by Shuvo Roy, a bioengineer and professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and William Fissell, a doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The project includes scientists, engineers and clinicians from across the United States.

The device includes a hemofilter made up of silicon semiconductor membranes that remove waste products from blood and a bioreactor containing renal tubule cells that regulate water volume, electrolyte balance and other metabolic functions

“Our team engineered the artificial kidney to sustainably support a culture of human kidney cells without provoking an immune response,” Roy tells Jannat Un Nisa of the Wonderful Engineering website. “Now that we have demonstrated the feasibility of combining the hemofilter and bioreactor, we can focus on upscaling the technology for more rigorous preclinical testing, and ultimately, clinical trials.”

KidneyX, a public-private collaboration between the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology, awarded the $650,000 prize to The Kidney Project after the demonstration showed that how the new bioartifical kidney implant works without the need for the immune-suppressing drugs or blood thinners typically required with transplants, reports Michael Irving of New Atlas.

Playing through the greenery and litter of a mini forest‘s undergrowth for just one month may be enough to change a child’s immune system, according to an experiment in Finland. When daycare workers rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth (such as dwarf heather and blueberries), and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time.

Compared to other city kids who play in standard urban daycares with yards of pavement, tile and gravel, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds at these greened-up daycare centers in Finland showed increased T-cells and other important immune markers in their blood within 28 days.

DURING THE STUDY, FOREST UNDERGROWTH, LAWN TURF AND PLANTER BOXES, IN WHICH CHILDREN PLANTED AND TENDED CROPS, WERE ADDED TO PAVED, TILED AND GRAVEL-COATED YARD AREAS AT DAYCARE CENTRES

“We also found that the intestinal microbiota of children who received greenery was similar to the intestinal microbiota of children visiting the forest every day,” explained environmental scientist Marja Roslund from the University of Helsinki in 2020, when the research was published.

Prior research has shown early exposure to green space is somehow linked to a well-functioning immune system, but it’s still not clear whether that relationship is causal or not.

The experiment in Finland is the first to explicitly manipulate a child’s urban environment and then test for changes in their microbiome and, in turn, a child’s immune system.

Source: https://www2.helsinki.fi/

Algae and bacteria are normal parts of a healthy freshwater environment, but sometimes they can grow out of control and deplete the water of oxygen, creating ‘dead zones‘. This tends to happen with global warming, deforestation, and the rush of soil nutrients into waterways, which can feed microbes. All three of these factors are in play today, which is why we are probably seeing increases in toxic blooms already. Considering what’s happened in the past, that’s a disturbing sign.

According to soil, fossil, and geochemical data from the Sydney Basin, researchers think the spread of microbes in the wake of the Permian extinction “was both a symptom of continental ecosystem collapse, and a cause of its delayed recovery.” Volcanic eruptions in the Permian first triggered an accelerated and sustained rise in greenhouse gas emissions. This caused higher global temperatures and sudden deforestation due to wildfires or drought.

Once the trees were gone, it wasn’t long before the structure of the soil began to erode, and its nutrients slipped into freshwater ecosystems. For more than three million years, Earth’s forests struggled to recover. The Sydney Basin was instead littered with lowland ecosystems that “were regularly inundated by stagnant, fresh/brackish waterbodies hosting thriving algal and bacterial populations“, the authors write. In turn, these persistent dead zones prevented the reestablishment of important carbon sinks, like peatlands, and slowed down climate and ecosystem recovery.

This major episode caused vast amounts of dust and sulfate aerosols to rise into the atmosphere, but compared to volcanic activity, the meteorite only caused a modest increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature, not a sustained one. As such, freshwater microbes only seemed to undergo a short-lived burst after the extinction event. Unfortunately, that’s very different from what occurred during the Permian extinction and what is happening today.

For instance, the researchers note that the “optimal temperature growth range” of these harmful algae in freshwater environments is 20-32 °C (68-89.6 °F). That range matches the estimated continental summer surface air temperatures for the region during the early Triassic. That range is what’s projected for mid-latitude continental summer surface air temperatures in 2100. Scientists are noticing other similarities, including an increase in forest fires and the subsequent destabilization of soils.

“The other big parallel is that the increase in temperature at the end of the Permian coincided with massive increases in forest fires,” says geologist Chris Fielding, also from the University of Connecticut. “One of the things that destroyed whole ecosystems was fire, and we’re seeing that right now in places like California. One wonders what the longer-term consequences of events like that as they are becoming more and more widespread.”

The good news is that this time many of the changes are in our control. The bad news is that whatever happens next is our own fault. “The end-Permian mass extinction event took four million years to recover from,” Fielding says. “That’s sobering.”

Source: https://www.nature.com/
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https://www.sciencealert.com/

 India‘s drug regulator has granted emergency use approval for Zydus Cadila‘s COVID-19 vaccine, the world’s first DNA shot against the coronavirus, in adults and children aged 12 years and above. The approval gives a boost to India’s vaccination programme, which aims to inoculate all eligible adults by December, and will provide the first shot for those under 18, as the country still struggles to contain the virus spread in some states. The vaccine, ZyCoV-D, uses a section of genetic material from the virus that gives instructions as either DNA or RNA to make the specific protein that the immune system recognises and responds to. Unlike most COVID-19 vaccines, which need two doses or even a single dose, ZyCoV-D is administered in three doses.

The generic drugmaker, listed as Cadila Healthcare Ltd, aims to make 100 million to 120 million doses of ZyCoV-D annually and has already begun stockpiling the vaccine. Zydus Cadila‘s vaccine, developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology, is the second home-grown shot to get emergency authorization in India after Bharat Biotech‘s Covaxin. The drugmaker said in July its COVID-19 vaccine was effective against the new coronavirus mutants, especially the Delta variant, and that the shot is administered using a needle-free applicator as opposed to traditional syringes. The regulatory nod makes ZyCoV-D the sixth vaccine authorized for use in the country where only about 9.18% of the entire population has been fully vaccinated so far, according to Johns Hopkins data.

The firm had applied for the authorization of ZyCoV-D on July 1, based on an efficacy rate of 66.6% in a late-stage trial of over 28,000 volunteers nationwide.

https://www.reuters.com/

A new transparency-friendly solar cell design could marry high efficiencies with 30-year estimated lifetimes, research led by the University of Michigan has shown. It may pave the way for windows that also provide solar power.

“Solar energy is about the cheapest form of energy that mankind has ever produced since the industrial revolution,” said Stephen Forrest, Professor of Electrical Engineering, who led the research. “With these devices used on windows, your building becomes a power plant.”

While silicon remains king for solar panel efficiency, it isn’t transparent. For window-friendly solar panels, researchers have been exploring organic—or carbon-based—materials. The challenge for Forrest’s team was how to prevent very efficient organic light-converting materials from degrading quickly during use.

The strength and the weakness of these materials lie in the molecules that transfer the photogenerated electrons to the electrodes, the entrance points to the circuit that either uses or stores the solar power. These materials are known generally as “non-fullerene acceptors” to set them apart from the more robust but less efficient “fullerene acceptors” made of nanoscale carbon mesh. Solar cells made with non-fullerene acceptors that incorporate sulfur can achieve silicon-rivaling efficiencies of 18%, but they do not last as long.

The team, including researchers at North Carolina State University and Tianjin University and Zhejiang University in China, set out to change that. In their experiments, they showed that without protecting the sunlight-converting material, the efficiency fell to less than 40% of its initial value within 12 weeks under the equivalent of 1 sun’s illumination.

“Non-fullerene acceptors cause very high efficiency, but contain weak bonds that easily dissociate under high energy photons, especially the UV [ultraviolet] photons common in sunlight,” said Yongxi Li, U-M assistant research scientist in electrical engineering and computer science and first author of the paper in Nature Communications.

Source: https://news.umich.edu/