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Category: biotech/medical

AI tool improves prediction of who will respond to cancer immunotherapy drugs

Cancer immunotherapy drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can be miracle drugs for cancer patients, curing some and turning deadly disease into a manageable chronic condition in others. But these drugs work for only a subset of patients, with few indications why—a knowledge gap that has detrimental effects on patient prognosis, clinical trial recruitment and research that could lead to new therapies.

A new artificial intelligence model called COMPASS, developed by Harvard Medical School researchers and their colleagues, improves prediction of which patients are most likely to respond to ICIs. Using data from patients treated in the past, the model outperformed the best existing approaches by 8.5%. It makes its predictions based on patients’ tumor gene activity and provides a rationale for its output.

If these results are validated in a future clinical trial, COMPASS could lead to better personalized medicine for cancer patients, more efficient trial enrollment for new therapies and new drug targets for researchers to explore.

Solving a 30-year-old puzzle about a mysterious superconducting material

A material made from yttrium, barium and copper oxide (better known as YBCO) has intrigued scientists since its discovery in 1987, largely because it retains its superconductive properties at a higher-than-normal temperature. However, it is extremely brittle, which makes it tricky to put to practical use.

But researchers can still learn much from it. For instance, its unusual properties can provide insight into designing possible room-temperature superconductors —that is, materials that conduct electricity with no resistance at room temperature. Doing so would have a huge impact on power transmission, medical imaging and fusion reactor magnets.

One thing about YBCO that has mystified researchers is that doping it with praseodymium, a rare earth element, completely kills the material’s superconductive properties. That is unusual because adding other rare earth elements to YBCO does not have the same effect.

Study reports the first detection of a sugar in interstellar space

Sugars are key biomolecules in living organisms, as they form the backbone of DNA and RNA and play a fundamental role in metabolic processes. In theories of the origin of life, sugars are also essential for the synthesis of the first nucleic acids. Despite their importance, one of the major questions in origin-of-life research is how the first sugars formed on Earth, since laboratory experiments show that they do not form in sufficient quantities under prebiotic conditions.

Sugars such as ribose and glucose have previously been detected in meteorite and asteroid samples, suggesting that some of these molecules may have originated in the primordial molecular cloud from which our solar system formed. However, until now, no sugar had ever been directly detected in the interstellar medium.

AI-powered electronic nose can distinguish tens of thousands of odors

A research team has presented a roadmap for developing an “artificial olfactory system” that detects odors like the human nose and analyzes them using artificial intelligence (AI) by leveraging metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The team systematically organized and reviewed key research trends in electronic nose technology, from MOF material design to sensor implementation and AI-based odor pattern recognition. The research was led by Hyuk-Jun Kwon’s in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science of Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology. The work is published in the journal Progress in Materials Science.

An artificial olfactory system, or “electronic nose (e-nose),” is a technology in which AI learns and analyzes signal patterns generated when multiple sensors respond to odor molecules. Although it has broad potential applications in areas such as food safety, environmental pollution monitoring, hazardous gas detection and disease diagnosis, conventional sensor materials have faced limitations in selectivity, response speed and operating conditions.

The research team focused on MOFs as a key material for overcoming these limitations. MOFs are porous materials formed by combining metal ions and organic compounds, and they can effectively adsorb odor molecules through their microscopic pores. Moreover, because their structures and chemical properties can be tailored for specific purposes, they are regarded as next-generation sensor materials capable of sensitively detecting various odors even under room-temperature, low-power operating conditions.

Atoms tell different stories when light hits a molecule in trillionths of a second

Researchers have captured how a molecule redistributes energy after absorbing light, differentiating the roles of individual atoms in the process. They used X-ray flashes from the European XFEL to show that different atoms in the same molecule can reveal different aspects of the process. The study provides evidence that excitation by light can enhance an atom’s sensitivity to the motion of nearby atoms. The new method for following ultrafast chemical reactions at the atomic scale, in real time, can help researchers understand photostability in DNA, energy flow in light-harvesting materials and other fundamental processes driven by light.

The team investigated 3-fluoropyridine, a small ring-shaped molecule. When the molecule absorbs light, such as a short pulse from an ultraviolet laser, it is promoted into an electronically excited state and rapidly distorts out of its original planar shape. It then passes through a so-called conical intersection: a short-lived but crucial crossing point where movements of electrons and the atoms’ cores become strongly coupled.

After this point, the molecule returns to the ground state. At that moment, electronic energy is converted into vibrations. The researchers found that this conversion leaves distinct fingerprints at different atomic sites: the fluorine atom acts as a clean marker of vibrational relaxation, while the nitrogen atom, which is more directly involved in the excitation, reflects an intertwined response of electron redistribution and structural motion.

Brains of teens with autism ‘tune in’ less to unfamiliar voices, study finds

Like other teenagers, teens on the autism spectrum are itching to exercise their social muscles. They hope for new friends, fun with people who share their interests, maybe even a romantic relationship.

“Adolescence is a moment of opportunity for these kids,” said Daniel Abrams, Ph.D., clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford Medicine. “They want to build friendships.”

But spreading their social wings is challenging for teens with autism. A new Stanford Medicine-led study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sheds light on a key factor: how the brains of teenagers with autism handle the sounds of unfamiliar voices. Unlike neurotypical teenagers, the reward centers in autistic teens’ brains don’t become increasingly responsive to strangers’ voices as they mature, the research found.

Can We Re-grow You?

For all of medical history, we’ve tried to persuade sick cells to behave better. What if instead we just swapped them out? Can we insert new brain cells grown from your own skin cells? And what does any of this have to do with sending one’s own cells into space, or rescuing animals on the very brink of extinction? Today Eagleman talks with stem cell biologist Jeanne Loring about the exciting next horizons.

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FEBS Press

A helpful review on immunological responses to adenoviral vectors, a widely used delivery system for gene therapies, anti-tumor therapies, and vaccines.

Adenovirus (AdV) is one of the most widely used vectors for gene therapy and vaccine studies due to its excellent transduction efficiency, capacity for large transgenes, and high levels of gene expression. When administered intravascularly, the fate of AdV vectors is heavily influenced by interactions with host plasma proteins. Some plasma proteins can neutralize AdV, but AdV can also specifically bind plasma proteins that protect against neutralization and preserve activity. This review summarizes the plasma proteins that interact with AdV, including antibodies, complement, and vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors. We will also review the complex interactions of these plasma proteins with each other and with cellular proteins, as well as strategies for developing better AdV vectors that evade or manipulate plasma proteins.

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