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Category: biotech/medical

AI model powers skin cancer detection across diverse populations

Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have developed a new approach for identifying individuals with skin cancer that combines genetic ancestry, lifestyle and social determinants of health using a machine learning model. Their model, more accurate than existing approaches, also helped the researchers better characterize disparities in skin cancer risk and outcomes.

The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Skin cancer is among the most common cancers in the United States, with more than 9,500 new cases diagnosed every day and approximately two deaths from skin cancer occurring every hour. One important component of reducing the burden of skin cancer is risk prediction, which utilizes technology and patient information to help doctors decide which individuals should be prioritized for cancer screening.

Bacterial Rtc repair system provides new target in fight against resistant infections

The discovery of a new mechanism of resistance to common antibiotics could pave the way for improved treatments for harmful bacterial infections, a study suggests. Targeting this defense mechanism could aid efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the world’s most urgent health challenges, researchers say.

The work appears in Nature Communications.

Findings from the study reveal how a repair system inside some bacteria plays a pivotal role in helping them survive commonly used antibiotics. Many of these drugs work by targeting the production of proteins essential for and survival.

Goodbye cavities? This new toothpaste made from hair can heal enamel

Scientists have found that keratin, the protein in hair and skin, can repair and protect tooth enamel. The material forms a mineralized layer that halts decay and restores strength, outperforming traditional fluoride. Made from sustainable sources like hair, it could soon be available in toothpaste or gels. The discovery could transform dentistry by turning waste into a powerful tool for regeneration.

Removing toxic proteins before they can damage motor neurons

University of Wollongong (UOW) scientists have developed a breakthrough therapy that clears toxic proteins from nerve cells—a discovery that advances the work of the late Professor Justin Yerbury and could transform the treatment of motor neuron disease (MND).

The proof-of-concept study, published in Nature Communications and led by Dr. Christen Chisholm from UOW’s Molecular Horizons, unveils a therapeutic designer molecule, MisfoldUbL, that targets and removes toxic misfolded SOD1 (superoxide dismutase 1) proteins from cells. SOD1 is an antioxidant enzyme that plays a crucial role in protecting cells from damage caused by superoxide radicals. About 35% of people with inherited MND in Australia have SOD1 gene mutations that cause more frequent misfolding.

“In MND, proteins misfold more frequently and the cell’s degradation systems become overwhelmed and stop working properly. The misfolded can then accumulate, forming clumps or ‘aggregates’ and over time, this accumulation damages and eventually kills motor neurons, leading to gradual muscle weakness, paralysis and death,” Dr. Chisholm said.

APLab: On average a human being is capable of reading between 200 and 300 words per minute (wpm), while speed readers can achieve speeds of 400–700 WPM or higher

This pales into comparison to ChatGPT which can effectively read and analyze tens of thousands of words per second, since I process text computationally rather than linearly.

What if there was an invention or the concept of an invention that could be created to enhance a human beings capacity to read just as quickly as ChatGPT’s? I tasked ChatGPT with a step-by-step process to create that invention:

Here’s a concrete, neuroscience-grounded invention plan to push human reading toward “machine-speed”—while keeping comprehension and recall intact.

—

## 0) Core idea (one sentence)

Exploit the brain’s natural reading pipeline—VWFA → Wernicke (lexico-semantic) ↔ Broca (phonological sequencing) with eye-movement–driven coarse-to-fine vision—by timing text delivery to your saccade/ fixation cycle, suppressing unnecessary subvocalization, and entraining semantic parsing rhythms. ([PMC][1])

## 1) Hardware & sensing.

Continue reading “APLab: On average a human being is capable of reading between 200 and 300 words per minute (wpm), while speed readers can achieve speeds of 400–700 WPM or higher” | >

Phages with fully-synthetic DNA can be edited gene by gene

A team led by University of Pittsburgh’s Graham Hatfull has developed a method to construct bacteriophages with entirely synthetic genetic material, allowing researchers to add and subtract genes at will. The findings open the field to new pathways for understanding how these bacteria-killing viruses work, and for potential therapy of bacterial infections.

NAD⁺ restores memory in Alzheimer’s disease models by correcting RNA errors

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia, affects nearly 40 million individuals globally, resulting in a gradual loss of memory and independence. Despite extensive research over the past decades, no treatments have been found that can halt or reverse the progression of this devastating disease.

In AD, a major contributor to neuronal dysfunction is the . Tau typically plays a crucial role in keeping the internal structure of neurons stable, much like train tracks help trains stay on course. However, in some diseases, tau undergoes abnormal modifications and starts to aggregate, disrupting this transport system, thus leading to neuronal damage and subsequent memory loss.

An international team of researchers has reported a new mechanism by which boosting the natural metabolite NAD⁺ can protect the brain from the degeneration associated with AD. Their paper, titled “NAD⁺ reverses Alzheimer’s neurological deficits via regulating differential alternative RNA splicing of EVA1C,” is published in Science Advances.

White matter connections may drive adolescent cognitive gains, study suggests

Adolescence, the life stage that marks the transition between childhood and adulthood, is known to be a vital period for the brain’s development. During this critical phase, people’s mental abilities, including their problem-solving and memory skills, rapidly improve.

Past neuroscience studies have tried to link these observed cognitive improvements during adolescence to changes in the structure of the brain and the connections between different brain regions. Nonetheless, the relationship between changes in the brain and specific aspects of cognitive performance has not been fully elucidated.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University, CNRS Université de Lyon, and Wake Forest School of Medicine recently carried out a study involving monkeys that was aimed at shedding new light into the underpinnings of mental maturation during adolescence. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that the cognitive development of adolescent monkeys is associated with a refined connectivity between brain regions, while changes in gray matter structure play a lesser role.

Preventing brain damage in premature babies: Lab-grown brain model reveals new hope

A treatment that could protect premature babies from brain damage showed promise in a recent study in Sweden. Using a first-of-its-kind prenatal brain model created with human cells, researchers observed new details about the effects of cerebral hemorrhages on stem cells during preterm birth. They also successfully tested an antidote that reduced the damage.

Publishing in Advanced Science, the researchers identified how neural stem cells in preterm infants are damaged as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. Researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institutet, and Lund and Malmö Universities collaborated on the study.

The study shows that as red blood cells seep into the brain’s subventricular zone (SVZ) and break down, levels of the messenger protein interleukin-1 (IL-1) become elevated. These proteins send strong signals that direct to stop acting like stem cells, says Professor Anna Herland, senior lecturer at the AIMES research center at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Karolinska Institutet.

New quantum sensing method measures three light properties at once with high precision

A new method for measuring three different properties of light, at the same time, has been developed using an interferometry-based quantum sensing scheme capable of simultaneously estimating multiple parameters of an optical network.

The approach could help advances in the fields of medicine and astronomy, for example, to improve the precision and scope of quantum measurements across applications ranging from biological imaging to gravitational wave detection.

To date, it has only been possible to measure each parameter individually. However, research published in The European Physical Journal Plus has demonstrated, for the first time, that three independent optical parameters can be measured in a single “view” with ultimate quantum precision, without the need to examine each one of them individually.

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