Amazon is getting into the business of prescription drug delivery via drone to doorsteps, promising to do it within an hour from when an order is placed.
We need to ķeep up with china in human enhancement and biotechnology.
Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin discuss how existing A.I. capabilities already pose catastrophic risks to a functional society, how A.I. companies are caught in a race to deploy as quickly as possible without adequate safety measures, and what it would mean to upgrade our institutions to a post-A.I. world.
What is the impact of treatment interruptions during courses of adjuvant radiation therapy for breast cancer?
The impact of treatment interruptions during courses of adjuvant radiation therapy for breast cancer has not been investigated. To address this issue, investigators conducted a study of 35,845 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients in the National Cancer Database who received external beam radiation and had overall survival (OS) of at least 12 months. Among these patients, 76% had grade III–IV disease and 68% had N0 cancer.
Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine the association between interrupted treatment days and OS. The number of interrupted treatment days was defined as the total number of days from the start to the end of treatment minus the number of expected days of treatment. OS was defined as the time between the date of diagnosis and the date of death.
As the number of interrupted treatment days increased, OS progressively worsened. Compared with 0–1 interrupted treatment days, hazard ratios for poorer OS were 1.069 for 2–5 interrupted treatment days, 1.239 for 6–10 interrupted treatment days, and 1.265 for 11–15 interrupted treatment days. Other factors significantly associated with poorer OS were Black versus white race (HR, 1.278), other nonwhite versus white race (HR, 1.337), grade III–IV versus grade I disease (HR, 1.743), and stage N1–N3 versus N0 disease (HR, 2.534–4.992).
Continue reading “Interrupting Radiation Therapy for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer” »
Researchers are attempting to uncover the basics of how fat tissue is structured and, specifically, inflammation associated with obesity, in the hopes of unlocking the connection between the accumulation of fat and poor health outcomes. Now, a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan revealed previously unrecognized immune cell types and interactions within adipose tissue using single-cell analysis of gene expression combined with spatial transcriptomics.
The findings are published in JCI Insight in an article titled, “A lipid-associated macrophage lineage rewires the spatial landscape of adipose tissue in early obesity.”
“Adipose tissue macrophage (ATM) infiltration is associated with adipose tissue dysfunction and insulin resistance in mice and humans,” wrote the researchers. “Recent single-cell data highlight increased ATM heterogeneity in obesity but do not provide a spatial context for ATM phenotype dynamics. We integrated single-cell RNA-Seq, spatial transcriptomics, and imaging of murine adipose tissue in a time course study of diet-induced obesity. Overall, proinflammatory immune cells were predominant in early obesity, whereas nonresident antiinflammatory ATMs predominated in chronic obesity.”
COVER STORY: The epigenetic clock uses DNA methylation to calculate the metric of “epigenetic age”. Epigenetic age acceleration (epigenetic > chronological age) has been repeatedly linked to pediatric asthma and allergic disease, demonstrating its potential as a diagnostic biomarker. However, questions remain about the accuracy and utility of epigenetic clocks in children.
This review by researchers at University of British Columbia examines the most used current epigenetic clocks and details the associations between epigenetic age acceleration and asthma/allergic disease. They explore the potential of the epigenetic clock as a biomarker for asthma and discuss the need for a pediatric epigenetic clock that is accurate in blood samples in order to maximize the utility of this powerful tool.
In a new study, Abudayyeh and Gootenberg led a team of scientists on a quest to identify and characterize Fanzor enyzmes in large-scale genetic databases. Their genetic mining venture, published in Science Advances, outlines the discovery of over 3,600 Fanzors in eukaryotes, including algae, snails, amoebas and the viruses that infect them.
Fanzors evolved new features to survive and thrive in eukaryotes
Five distinct families of Fanzors could be identified from the study data. By comparing the biological makeup of these families, Abudayyeh and colleagues could track their evolutionary history. Fanzors most likely evolved from proteins called TnpB, which are encoded in transposons – mobile genetic elements often nicknamed “jumping genes”. In Nature, the McGovern team hypothesized that the TnpB gene may have “jumped” from bacteria to eukaryotes in a genetic “shuffling” many years ago. Abudayyeh and Gootenburg’s new study and genetic tracing implies that this event likely occurred several times, with Fanzors “jumping” from viruses and symbiotic bacteria. Their analyses also suggest that once these genes had made their way into eukaryotes, they evolved new features that promoted their survival, including the ability to enter a cell’s nucleus and access its DNA.
Scientists have successfully gene-edited chickens to make them partially resistant to the bird flu and believe full immunity may be within reach.
Scientists from the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute have successfully gene-edited chickens to make them partially resistant to the bird flu but experts argue that only full immunity can see the danger of the virus eradicated.
This is according to a report by BBC News published this week.
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A drug that boosts strength in injured or aging mice restores connections between nerves and muscle and suggests ways to combat weakness in humans due to aging, injury or disease.
Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of collective intelligence, programmable biology, and the future of learning with renowned TED speaker and Harvard’s Wyss Institute Associate Faculty, Michael Levin. As the director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University and co-director of the Institute for Computer-Designed Organisms, Levin stands at the forefront of biological research and innovation.
In this enlightening interview, we explore the potentials and pitfalls of rewriting our DNA to gain superhuman abilities – imagine being able to breathe underwater or see in infrared! We also address the nuances of academic publishing and the urgent need for more collaborative approaches within scientific disciplines.
I want to tell you about one thing that came up in our conversation: efforts to, in some way, monitor encrypted messages.
Policy proposals have been popping up around the world (like in Australia, India, and, most recently, the UK) that call for tech companies to build in ways to gain information about encrypted messages, including through back-door access. There have also been efforts to increase moderation and safety on encrypted messaging apps, like Signal and Telegram, to try to prevent the spread of abusive content, like child sexual abuse material, criminal networking, and drug trafficking.
Not surprisingly, advocates for encryption are generally opposed to these sorts of proposals as they weaken the level of user privacy that’s currently guaranteed by end-to-end encryption.
