Tumor tissue engineering has opened new avenues for cancer research. With an emphasis on gastrointestinal malignancies, we summarize capabilities and limitations of patient-derived and engineered organoid models. We then discuss how innovations in biomaterial design, biofabrication, microfluidics, benchmarking, and AI converge to better emulate tumor tissues and advance translational modeling.
Gene drives—a genetic engineering approach that quickly spreads specific genetic changes throughout a population, whether to kill it off or add a new trait—may have potential for controlling weeds. But so far, gene drives have primarily been studied in mosquitoes, and have yet to be deployed in the real world.
In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers modeled how a gene drive would proceed in plants. Their simulations suggest that a gene drive’s success may hinge on seed banks—underground reservoirs of seeds that can germinate years or even decades later. Without proper consideration, they found, these stored seeds can slow down or even doom the gene drive, because they continually reintroduce plants without the gene drive into the population.
Modeling studies like this one can help scientists design successful gene drives in plants and discover and mitigate potential problems before deployment in the wild, the researchers said.
Meteor impacts may have helped spark life on Earth, creating hot, chemical-rich environments where the first living cells could take shape, according to research integrated by a recent Rutgers University graduate. Shea Cinquemani, who earned her bachelor’s degree from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in May 2025, has published a paper based on research she started during the spring of her senior year.
“No one knows, from a scientific perspective, how life could have been formed from an early Earth that had no life,” said Shea Cinquemani, who earned her bachelor’s degree in marine biology and fisheries management from the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in May 2025. “How does something come from nothing?”
Cinquemani is the lead author of a review, published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, examining where life may have first formed on Earth. The paper focuses on hydrothermal vents, places where hot, mineral-rich water flows through rock and emerges into surrounding water, creating the chemical conditions and energy gradients needed for complex reactions.
Biomolecular condensates are tiny, droplet-like structures made up of molecules that help organize key processes in living organisms. Because they are so small and constantly changing, it has been difficult for scientists to measure their physical properties or control how they behave. Leiden researchers at the Mashaghi Lab have now discovered a surprising new way to shape and control tiny droplets of molecules found in living organisms. The breakthrough could lead to smarter biomaterials, improve drug delivery and even new insights into the emergence of life on Earth. The work is published in Nature Communications.
“Our lab works at the interface of biophysics, molecular engineering and medicine,” says Alireza Mashaghi. “We explore how molecular interactions drive the emergent properties of biological materials.”
Inside the condensates, Mashaghi and his team triggered a reaction normally associated with DNA damage from UV light (like that seen in skin cancer). Known as thymine dimer formation, this process causes two neighboring thymine bases to bond together. By harnessing this reaction as a molecular “switch” within the condensates, the researchers were able to alter the internal connectivity of the molecules, allowing them to control how the condensates behave.
Researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) have produced a mutational map showing how mutations in amylin—a hormone that plays a key role in glucose regulation—affect its tendency to form toxic amyloid aggregates in the pancreas. This process is linked to the development of type 2 diabetes. While it was already known that certain mutations could alter this aggregation capacity, understanding of this process was fragmented and based on isolated studies. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.
“For the first time, we can systematically map how thousands of mutations modulate amylin aggregation, bringing human genetics closer to molecular mechanisms,” says Benedetta Bolognesi, the principal investigator of the Protein Phase Transitions in Health and Disease group at IBEC, who is also the lead author of the study.
“We have created a map that allows us to anticipate the potential impact of these mutations in the population,” adds Marta Badia, a researcher in the same group and first author of the study. “We are not assessing toxicity, but rather the protein’s intrinsic propensity to form fibers. This is a first step, but an extremely necessary one.”
Imagine a world where anyone who needs a bone marrow transplant can get one — on demand. No more desperate donor searches or deadly delays. Kevin Caldwell, Co-Founder & CEO, Ossium Health.
Bone marrow transplants have always depended on finding the right donor at the right time. But what if bone marrow could be stored, shipped, and used on demand—just like a drug? That’s exactly what Ossium Health is now showing in human clinical data.
Kevin Caldwell is the Co-Founder, CEO, and President of Ossium Health (https://ossiumhealth.com/), a clinical-stage bioengineering company pioneering off-the-shelf, cryopreserved bone marrow therapies derived from deceased organ donors.
Under Kevin’s leadership, Ossium has developed a novel platform designed to solve one of the most persistent challenges in transplantation medicine: timely access to compatible bone marrow for patients with life-threatening hematologic malignancies such as Acute Myeloid Leukemia. The company’s approach enables on-demand delivery of viable marrow cells, bypassing the logistical and biological constraints of traditional donor matching and scheduling.
Since its founding, Kevin has scaled Ossium from an early-stage startup into a clinical-stage company with a robust network of over 50 strategic partnerships across supply, clinical development, and commercial channels. He has led multiple financings and secured a landmark contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, validating Ossium’s relevance to national health preparedness and biomanufacturing resilience.
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/ damileearch WHO AM I: I’m Dami, a licensed Architect living in Vancouver, BC. I make videos about architecture, career, and creativity. WEBSITES https://www.damilee.com https://nollimedia.com/ Filmmaking by Raffaele di Nicola Raffaele di Nicola IG @nollistudio Special Thanks @TheNetworkHub Vancouver https://thenetworkhub.ca/ GET IN TOUCH: If you’d like to talk, I’d love to hear from you! Commenting on a video or tweeting @damileearch will be the quickest way to get a response from me, but if your question is very long, feel free to email me at [email protected]. I try my best to respond to the emails, but unfortunately, there just aren’t enough hours in the day! A NOLLISTUDIO/NOLLIMEDIA Production http://www.nollistudio.com @HPInc @AMD #InterstellarTravel #GenerationShip #SpaceArchitecture #SpaceColonization #FutureOfHumanity #SpaceExploration #Megastructures #Architecture #Engineering #SciFi #SpaceDesign #DeepSpace #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceHabitat #AsteroidMining #Interstellar #SpaceSettlement #FutureEngineering #ClosedLoopSystems #SpaceTechnology #ad #AMD #Ryzen #RyzenAI What would it actually take to leave Earth — not for a weekend on the Moon, but forever? This video tests three real generation-ship proposals against five brutal constraints: gravity, radiation, closed-loop life support, cultural continuity across 400 years, and the selection problem — choosing who gets to go. We break down Chrysalis (a 58 km modular ship that sheds stages like a rocket), Proximum (a civilization carved inside an asteroid), and WFP (a self-assembling micro-city based on MIT research). Along the way we confront governance without a homeworld, genetic bottlenecks, generational memory loss, and why shared rituals might matter more than engine specs. The answer isn’t one ship — it’s three radically different philosophies of what it means to be human in deep space.
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LigandForge generates 150,000 peptide drug candidates in 3 minutes — a million times faster than existing methods, unlocking a tsunami of possible treatments.
A man with no medical background used ChatGPT, AlphaFold, and Grok to design a custom mRNA cancer vaccine for his dying dog — and her biggest tumor shrank 75%.
Meanwhile, scientists discovered a single protein that literally spreads aging through your bloodstream. These stories are each incredible on their own. But the big story is the implications for curing aging.
In this deep dive, I break down how these three breakthroughs fit together, what peptides and mRNA vaccines actually are (and how they’re different), and why this moment might be the most important inflection point in the history of drug design.
The age of custom AI cures isn’t coming. It’s here.
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Nicholas F. Kuhn, Matthew F. Krummel et al. demonstrate how local gene editing of cancer-associated fibroblasts alters their cell state and, subsequently, the cellular tumor microenvironment.
CAFs are prominent members of the TME. Kuhn et al. demonstrate how local gene editing of CAFs alters their cell state and, subsequently, the cellular TME.
A fascination with fish gills has led researchers at Cornell to develop a bio-inspired approach to mixing heat and molecules in fluids—findings that could inform future biomedical devices, heat exchangers and soft robotics.
Moving heat and mass efficiently through flowing liquids is central to technologies ranging from dialysis machines to industrial cooling systems, yet many of those technologies rely on rigid components to get the job done.
Looking for an alternative, Yicong Fu, a mechanical engineering doctoral student, turned to fish gills—soft, porous tissue that constantly stirs water to keep gases and ions flowing. Working with Sunghwan “Sunny” Jung, professor of biological and environmental engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Fu designed a gill-like thermal dispenser that is providing new insights into fluid-structure interactions.