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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,164

Mosquito’s DNA could provide clues on gene expression, regulation

When it comes to DNA, one pesky mosquito turns out to be a rebel among species.

Researchers at Rice University’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) are among the pioneers of a new approach to studying DNA. Instead of focusing on as linear sequences of genetic code, they’re looking for clues on how their folded 3D shapes might determine gene expression and regulation.

For most living things, their threadlike chromosomes fold to fit inside the nuclei of cells in one of two ways. But the chromosomes of the Aedes aegypti mosquito—which is responsible for the transmission of such as dengue, chikungunya, Zika, mayaro and yellow fever—defy this dichotomy, taking researchers at the CTBP by surprise.

Scientists Use AI to Create Music through Proteins

The first time a language model was used to synthesize human proteins.

Of late, AI models are really flexing their muscles. We have recently seen how ChatGPT has become a poster child for platforms that comprehend human languages. Now a team of researchers has tested a language model to create amino acid sequences, showcasing abilities to replicate human biology and evolution.

The language model, which is named ProGen, is capable of generating protein sequences with a certain degree of control. The result was achieved by training the model to learn the composition of proteins. The experiment marks the first time a language model was used to synthesize human proteins.

A study regarding the research was published in the journal *Nature Biotechnology Thursday. *The project was a combined effort from researchers at the University of California-San Francisco and the University of California-Berkeley and Salesforce Research, which is a science arm of a software company based in San Fransisco.

## The significance of using a language model

Researchers say that a language model was used for its ability to generate protein sequences with a predictable function across large protein families, akin to generating grammatically and semantically correct natural language sentences on diverse topics.

“In the same way that words are strung together one-by-one to form text sentences, amino acids are strung together one-by-one to make proteins,” Nikhil Naik, the Director of AI Research at Salesforce Research, told *Motherboard*. The team applied “neural language modeling to proteins for generating realistic, yet novel protein sequences.”

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How Social Media Addiction Destroys Your Brain

The rise of social media has changed our day to day lives. But more and more reports show that social media and especially social media can impact our brain. Social media addiction might also to a decline in mental health. How does social media changes us? And are the effects by social media addiction reversal?

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Social media has been developed to connect people. However, quite early, scientists found that social media (and social media addiction) can lead to changes in the brain such an enlarged amygdala. First reports surfaced showing that people compare their lives to lives they see on social media and report a decline of mental health upon heavy social media use. It seems like our brains cannot distinguish between social media and the real world. Social media also led to an attention span crisis meaning that we have a harder time to focus if we spend much time on social media. Moreover, social media is able to feed into the reward system of our brains. Everytime we perceive something good dopamine producing cells in the brain release dopamine which leads to a good feeling. Social media has used this mechanism to provide us with a constant stream of good feelings. Social media algorithms have been optimize to show more social media content in a shorter period of time leading to more dopamine. As a result, some argue that social media addiction should be recognized as a mental disorder.
Besides negatively impacting our brains on an individual level social media and social media addiction also impacts society. Last year, a sharp rise in tic symptoms have been reported among teenagers in the US. It seems like that tic-related content on tiktok together with anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to this rise in tic-like symptoms. So what should we do about social media? And how can we ensure that our brains are not negatively impacted by the constant stream of dopamine? Well, sometimes the best thing is just to avoid social media for a while.

References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6502424/
https://fortune.com/2022/03/31/teen-girls-tourette-tics-tiktok/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jpc.15932
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214014870
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/adb.12570
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.0903620106
https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.2724?luicode=10000011&lfi.…2724.html.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-22977-002
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cyber.2021.0324
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40519-017-0364-2
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02673843.2019.1590851
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224545.2019.1578725
https://movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mds.28778
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2018.0701
Images:

Most videos and images are derived from: pixabay.com, pexels.com and videvo.net.

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How a Baseball Injury Made A Genius (Savant Syndrome)

Savant syndrome is a strange condition that gives people unique abilities. Although savant syndrome is very rare reported cases gain genius-like abilities in narrow domains. But how can we explain savant syndrome? And could we induce savant syndrome in normal people?

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Savant syndrome is characterized by unique skills in art, music, mechanics, calendar calculation or maths. Savant syndrome can be acquired through injuries or frontotemporal dementia or be developed in people with autism spectrum disorder. In acquired savant syndrome and autism spectrum disorder, unique connections in the brain led to the condition. In savant syndrome, we often find that the left hemisphere is damaged and the right brain hemisphere has to compensate for this. Based on this observation, we can partially induce savant syndrome like abilities through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Many questions concerning savant syndrome remain but this condition is truly amazing.

0:00–1:10 Intro.
1:10–1:56 What is Savant Syndrome?
1:56–4:02 Acquiring Savant Syndrome.
4:02–5:46 Savant Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
5:46–8:39 Can we Induce Savant Syndrome?

Images:

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How Exercise Creates Super-Brains

We all know that exercise is good for our health. But besides lowering the risk of obesity or type II diabetes, exercise has also been shown to benefit our brain. More precisely, exercise modifies parts of the brain and improves memory, attention and improves mood. Regular exercise further lowers the risk to suffer from dementia or depression. But how does exercise benefit our brains?

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Philosophers have speculated for centuries that exercise promotes our brain functionality but only a few decades ago, scientists uncovered that this is true. Studies have shown that children who are more athletic perform better in creativity, concentration, maths verbal and IQ tests. These children also tend to have a larger hippocampus and basal ganglia both of which are important for memory and attention span. Adults who started to workout regularly also have changes in their brain and perform better in various tests. There are several mechanisms which explain this phenomenon. When we exercise, brain cells release VEGF which helps to supply the brain with oxygen. Moreover, neurotrophins are released when we workout which helps the survival of brain cells. Exercise also seems to improve neuroplasticity through the same pathways. Since exercise leads to the release of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, workouts also have been used to treat mental disorders such as depression. In various studies it was seen exercise helps to alleviate the symptoms of people who suffer from major depression.
The literature suggests roughly 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise per week might be optimal to curb the risk of heart disease and 19 other chronic diseases. Concerning brain health, 120 minutes of moderate exercise a week might be enough to get all the benefits we have seen before. But even if you do less you might see a difference in the long run. In general, aerobic exercise seemed to have the best impacts on your brain. Jogging, running, swimming and all other forms of aerobic sports might give the benefits we have seen in this video!

References:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-018-0275-4
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.0905307106
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20693803/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025619616300477
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02658/full.
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/ajp.2007.164.2.350a.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes…1404097110
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2702700/pdf/nihms117644.pdf.
https://stanford.library.sydney.edu.au/archives/spr2020/entr…stPhilSpor.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00762/full.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23259671211001129
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00509/full.
https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/features/physical-activity-brain-health/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6943756/pdf/main.pdf.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5457513/pdf/ncomms15557.pdf.
https://positivepsychology.com/exercise-neurological-benefits/

00:00–00:53 Intro.

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Scientists discover a rare neurological disease involving cellular recycling

The new disease could provide insights into how the cell’s recycling system contributes to a healthy brain. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered a new neurological condition characterized by issues with motor coordination and speech. They identified three children with the condition, two siblings and an unrelated child.

One Third of Americans Would Use Genetics Tech to Make Their Offspring Smarter, Study Finds

Of the respondents, 28 percent said they were more likely than not to use gene editing to make their babies smarter, and 38 percent said they’d use polygenic screening. The researchers also noted what they called a bandwagon effect, where people who were told something along the lines of “everyone else is doing it” were more likely to say they’d do it too. This is logical; our comfort with decisions is buoyed by a sense that others in our shoes would choose similarly.

It’s important to note, though, that the survey made it clear that genetically enhancing embryos didn’t come with a guaranteed result of a smarter kid. “In this study, we stipulated a realistic effect—that each service would increase the odds of having a child who attends a top-100 college by 2 percentage points, from 3 percent to 5 percent odds—and lots of people are still interested,” said Michelle N. Meyer, chair of the Department of Bioethics and Decision Sciences at Geisinger and first author of the article.

The numbers—28 and 38 percent—don’t seem high. That’s a little below and a little above one-third of total respondents who would use the technologies. But imagine walking around in a world where one out of every three people had had their genes tweaked before birth. Unsettling, no? The researchers said their results point to substantial and growing interest in genetic technologies for offspring enhancement, and that now is the time to get a national conversation going around regulations.

Fighting brain cancer with bioadhesive nanoparticles

A team of researchers from Yale and the University of Connecticut (UConn) has developed a nanoparticle-based treatment that targets multiple culprits in glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer.

The results are published in Science Advances (“Anti-seed PNAs targeting multiple oncomiRs for brain tumor therapy”).

A new treatment developed by Yale researchers uses bioadhesive nanoparticles that adhere to the site of the tumor and then slowly release the synthesized peptide nucleic acids that they’re carrying. In this image, the nanoparticles (red) are visible within human glioma tumor cells (green with blue nuclei). (Image: Yale Cancer Center)

Scientists Just Discovered A New Black Hole That Breaks Modern Theories!

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