Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,309

I have created an educational guide to the adenovirus capsid! The adenovirus is one of the most frequently used types of viruses for gene therapy (along with AAV and lentivirus). It is a powerful vehicle for delivering DNA to cells in the body. But to work with adenovirus as a technology, it is important to understand its fundamental biological structure and function. This guide will help you to gain a more holistic comprehension of a particularly important part of adenovirus biology: the capsid. I made the images using PyMol.

PDF version: Guide to the Structure and Function of the Adenovirus Capsid

For this guide, I will explain the fundamental biology of adenovirus capsid proteins with an emphasis on the context of gene therapy. While the guide is meant primarily for readers with an interest in applying adenovirus to gene therapy, it will not include much discussion of the techniques and technologies involved in engineering adenoviruses for such purposes. If you are interested in learning more about adenovirus engineering, you may enjoy my review paper “Synthetic Biology Approaches for Engineering Next-Generation Adenoviral Gene Therapies” [1]. Here, I will focus mostly on the capsid of human adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) since it is the most commonly used type of adenovirus employed in gene therapy research, but I will occasionally describe other types of adenoviruses when necessary. Many of the presented concepts remain the same or similar across other types of adenoviruses.

The adenovirus consists of an icosahedral protein capsid enclosing a double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) genome. It possesses 12 fiber proteins which protrude from the capsid and helps to facilitate cellular transduction. Adenoviruses are nonenveloped and approximately 90 nm in diameter (not including the fibers). The Ad5 genome is about 36 kb in size. Major capsid proteins of the adenovirus include the hexon, penton, and fiber. The minor capsid proteins are protein IIIa, protein VI, protein VIII, and protein IX. Inside the capsid, there are core proteins including protein V, protein VII, protein μ (also known as protein X), adenovirus proteinase (AVP), protein IVa2, and terminal protein (TP) [2].

Read more | >

A research team from Osaka University in Japan has concluded that a clinical trial of transplanted IPS cell-derived corneal tissue was safe and effective – further evidence that cellular reprogramming with Yamanaka factors is moving towards scalable therapies.

Longevity. Technology: The clinical trial spanned several years and used corneal tissues derived from induced pluripotent stem cells. The tissue was transplanted into four almost-blind patients, and, according to the research team, none of the patients experienced rejection or tumorigenicity of the transplanted cells and all saw improvements in their symptoms, with three experiencing improved eyesight, with one improving from 0.15 to 0.7. Importantly, all were free of side effects one year later.

IPS cells can be generated from any adult cell, with Yamanaka factors – a group of protein transcription factors from four master genes. These induced stem cells demonstrate the significant quality of pluripotency – they can differentiate into all other cell types of the body. This is incredibly useful both for research and for therapy.

Read more | >

Mangrove trees inspire thermal and membrane-based desalination system.

Four US students, taking part in a program aimed at high school girls interested in engineering, have designed a desalinating water bottle. The currently hypothetical device would be compact and portable so could offer increased accessibility over existing desalinating designs that mimic transpiration.

Laurel Hudson, Gracie Cornish, Kathleen Troy and Maia Vollen met at Virginia Tech’s C-Tech2 program where they were given an assignment to ‘reinvent the wheel’. Choosing to focus on the global water crisis and inspired by drinking straws used by hikers to purify water, they considered if it was possible to make a bottle that produced drinking water from seawater. They reached out to Jonathan Boreyko, an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering, who was researching synthetic trees at the time. He agreed to help, and, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the group met virtually at night to discuss their research. Along with Ndidi Eyegheleme, a graduate student in Boreyko’s lab, they planned and produced a model to evaluate the inner workings of their design.

Read more | >

Nearly 60% of adults and 75% of children have antibodies indicating that they’ve been infected with Covid-19, according to new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The data come from an ongoing study of blood samples sent to commercial laboratories across the US.

At the beginning of December, an estimated 34% of Americans had antibodies showing that they had once been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19. By the end of February, after an avalanche of cases caused by the Omicron variant, that number had jumped to 58%.

Read more | >

Making the future of medicine possible by rethinking how medicines are made — olivia zetter, head of government affairs & AI strategy, resilience.

Olivia Zetter is Head of Government Affairs and AI Strategy at National Resilience, Inc. (https://resilience.com/) a first-of-its-kind manufacturing and technology company dedicated to broadening access to complex medicines and protecting bio-pharmaceutical supply chains against disruption.

Founded in 2020, National Resilience, Inc. is building a sustainable network of high-tech, end-to-end manufacturing solutions to ensure the medicines of today, and tomorrow, can be made quickly, safely, and at scale.

Olivia brings extensive experience in national security spanning diplomacy, defense, and development, along with emerging technology issues. Olivia has held multiple positions in government, most recently as a Director of Research and Analysis at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, an independent federal commission established by Congress to examine the impact of artificial intelligence on national security and defense.

Olivia previously served at the Department of State as a Foreign Affairs Officer in the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, where her work spanned a diverse range of cyber policy areas. She also served as the Special Advisor on Trans-Regional Issues to the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, where she coordinated efforts to counter the terrorist organization’s financing, foreign terrorist fighter flows, and external operations.

Continue reading “Olivia Zetter — Head of Government Affairs and AI Strategy — National Resilience, Inc.” | >

These key building blocks of life were found in space rocks, scientists confirm.

Key building blocks of DNA that previous research mysteriously failed to discover in meteorites have now been discovered in space rocks, suggesting that cosmic impacts might once have helped deliver these vital ingredients of life to ancient Earth.

DNA is made of four main building blocks — nucleobases called adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine © and guanine (G). DNA’s sister molecule, RNA, also uses A, C and G, but swaps out thymine for uracil (U). Scientists wondering whether meteorites might have helped deliver these compounds to Earth have previously looked for nucleobases in space rocks, but until now, scientists had only detected A and G in space rocks, and not T, C or U.

Read more | >