Data scientists in Denmark claim they’ve devised an AI model that can predict when someone is going to die.

Horizons _ SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY + HEALTH

Some researchers argue that looking for structural changes in sugar molecules called glycans could help identify different types of cancer early on.

Prior studies have linked high blood cholesterol levels to various cancers, including colorectal cancers. However, it hasn’t been clear that lowering cholesterol can prevent colorectal cancers. Now, researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have found in mice hard-to-detect colorectal pre-cancerous lesions known as serrated polyps, and the aggressive tumors that develop from them, depend heavily on the ramped-up production of cholesterol. Their finding points to the possibility of using cholesterol-lowering drugs to prevent or treat such tumors.

The findings are published in Nature Communications in an article titled, “Enhanced SREBP2-driven cholesterol biosynthesis by PKCλ/ι deficiency in intestinal epithelial cells promotes aggressive serrated tumorigenesis.”

“The metabolic and signaling pathways regulating aggressive mesenchymal colorectal cancer (CRC) initiation and progression through the serrated route are largely unknown,” the researchers wrote. “Although relatively well characterized as BRAF mutant cancers, their poor response to current targeted therapy, difficult preneoplastic detection, and challenging endoscopic resection make the identification of their metabolic requirements a priority. Here, we demonstrate that the phosphorylation of SCAP by the atypical PKC (aPKC), PKCλ/ι promotes its degradation and inhibits the processing and activation of SREBP2, the master regulator of cholesterol biosynthesis.”

A University of Oxford-led study has found that diverse communities of resident commensal gut bacteria collectively protect the human gut from disease-causing microorganisms by consuming the nutrients that the pathogen would need to be able to gain a foothold in the host.

The team used an ecological approach to investigate how colonization by two major bacterial pathogens— Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium)—is influenced by a range of human gut bacteria both in vitro and in gnotobiotic mice. They found that the ecological diversity of the microbiome was important for colonization resistance. While single species of gut microbiota alone had negligible effects on providing effective resistance to pathogens, certain combinations of essential key species within diverse communities exhibited much greater colonization resistance when together.

Having found that these communities block pathogen growth by consuming nutrients that would be required by the pathogen, the team also showed that the concept of nutrient blocking can be used to predict specific sets of commensal microbiota that will resist a novel bacterial pathogen, using genome sequence data alone.

A new study has illustrated how a protein called Snail helps brain cells coordinate in response to injury, showing that how much Snail is produced affects whether an injury heals efficiently.

According to a notice the agency posted on the government contracting portal SAM.gov on Thursday (Dec. 7), the technology was developed by researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia and has been studied for use in a simulated entry into Neptune’s atmosphere. A separate 2021 study of the same technology studied it for use in the atmosphere of Mars.

Related: Space Force wants ‘Foo Fighter’ satellites to track hypersonic missiles

The agency claims its MHD system is “simpler than conventional methods for control of hypersonic craft (e.g., chemical propulsion, shifting flight center of gravity, or trim tabs) and enables new entry, descent, and landing mission architectures.”

Researchers have cracked the second ‘code of life’. In an exclusive interview with Technology Networks they explain how.

Innovative neuromodulation techniques provided by a specialist institute in New Jersey can restore lost functions.

The idea that sprinkling rock dust on farmland can soak up atmospheric carbon will be tested at large scale thanks to a $57 million purchase from corporations including Stripe and Alphabet.