Lifeboat Foundation

A research team led by Prof. Xue Yuanchao from the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new method for global profiling of in-situ RNA–RNA contacts associated with a specific RNA-binding protein (RBP) and revealed positional mechanisms by which PTBP1-associated RNA loops regulate cassette exon splicing.

This study was published online in Molecular Cell on March 22.

In eukaryotes, the same pre-mRNA can produce multiple protein isoforms to execute similar or different biological functions through alternative splicing. Several longstanding models proposed that RBPs may regulate alternative splicing by modulating long-range RNA–RNA interactions (RRI). However, direct experimental evidence was lacking.

“AlphaFold was a huge advance in protein structure prediction. We were inspired by the advances they made, which led to a whole new wave of using deep learning,” said Professor David Baker, a biochemist and computational biologist at the University of Washington.

“The advantage of ESMFold is that it is very fast, and so can be used to predict the structures of a larger set of proteins than AlphaFold, albeit with slightly lower accuracy, similar to that of RoseTTAFold,” Dr. Baker said, referring to a tool that emerged from his lab in 2021.

DeepMind open-sourced the code for AlphaFold2, making it freely available to the community. Nearly all proteins known to science—about 214 million—can be looked up in the public AlphaFold Protein Structure Database. Meta’s ESM Metagenomic Atlas includes 617 million proteins.

A leading neuroscientist claims that a pong-playing clump of about a million neurons is “sentient”. What does that mean? Why did they teach a lab-grown brain to play pong? To study biological self-organization at the root of life, intelligence, and consciousness. And, according to their website, “to see what happens.”

CORRECTIONS/Clarifications:
- The cells aren’t directly frozen in liquid nitrogen — they are put in vials and stored in liquid nitrogen: https://www.atcc.org/products/pcs-201-010
- The sentience of some invertebrates, like octopuses, is generally agreed upon. Prominent scientists affirmed non-human consciousness in the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness: https://philiplow.foundation/consciousness/

Continue reading “Lab-Grown Brain Learns Pong — Is This Biological Neural Network ‘Sentient’?” »

DART VADAR can automatically sense and respond to molecular triggers in cells.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the term mRNA was brought to the public’s attention. It is, however, not a new medical technology, having been identified in 1961.

These mRNA vaccines were developed to generate a full-body immune response in order to protect the human body from the deadly coronavirus and its variants.

Continue reading “New DART VADAR system allows development of precision RNA-based therapies” »

Food tech startup Farther Farms has developed a process that keeps foods that would normally need to be refrigerated or frozen fresh at room temperature — and their first product is a bag of shelf-stable French fries.

The cold chain: Microorganisms are a major cause of food spoilage, and they thrive at room temperature. By keeping some foods cold, we can slow the growth of these microbes, extending the life of the food.

To do that, the foods must be prepared, shipped, and stored along a temperature-controlled supply chain (a “cold chain”). If the cold chain is broken at any point along the way, the food may quickly become unsafe to eat.

Using AI, Ting Xu and her colleagues designed polymer mixtures that mimic the natural proteins in biological fluids. The technique could improve the design of biocompatible materials.

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In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue defeated the reigning world champion chess player, Garry Kasparov. In 2016, Google’s AlphaGo defeated one of the worlds top Go players in a five-game match. Today, OpenAI released GPT-4, which it claims beats 90% of humans who take the bar to become a lawyer, and 99% of students who compete in the Biology Olympiad, an international competition that tests the knowledge and skills of high school students in the field of biology.

In fact, it scores in the top ranks for at least 34 different tests of ability in fields as diverse as macroeconomics, writing, math, and — yes — vinology.

Continue reading “GPT-4 Beats 90% Of Lawyers Trying To Pass The Bar” »

Studying Our Ocean’s History To Understanding Its Future — Dr. Emily Osborne, PhD, Ocean Chemistry & Ecosystems Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Dr Emily Osborne, Ph.D. (https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/people/emily-osborne/) is a Research Scientist, in the Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division, at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.

Continue reading “Dr. Emily Osborne Ph.D. — Research Scientist — Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division — NOAA/AOML” »

A biological method that produces metal nanoclusters using the electroactive bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens could provide a cheap and sustainable solution to high-performance catalyst synthesis for various applications such as water splitting.

Metal nanoclusters contain fewer than one hundred atoms and are much smaller than nanoparticles. They have unique electronic properties but also feature numerous active sites available for catalysis on their surface. There are several synthetic methods for making metal nanoclusters, but most require multiple steps involving toxic substances and harsh temperature and pressure conditions.

Continue reading “Electroactive bacterium generates well-defined nanosized metal catalysts with remarkable water-splitting performance” »