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Category: biotech/medical – Page 131

Fragile no more, nickelates get an upgrade that changes how superconductivity endures

Discovered in 2019, the material known as nickelates has intrigued researchers for its potential to become a superconductor at elevated temperatures—a property that could significantly advance such fields as quantum science and energy transmission. However, it’s a very unstable material and difficult to work with. But the lab of Professor Charles Ahn has developed a method that could enhance superconductivity in these materials. The results are published in Nature Communications.

With their ability to conduct electricity with no resistance, superconductors are a key component to quantum computing, medical imaging, and a number of other fields. A group of copper-oxide compounds known as cuprates have long been central to the study of high-temperature superconductivity (“high temperature” is a relative term—they still need to be kept in very cold environments). Nickelates are especially exciting because they share some of cuprates’ key electronic features while offering a new platform for materials design and tuning.

Enter nickelates, a material with many similarities to cuprates, but with the potential to eventually become even more useful to scientists. Dung Vu, a postdoctoral associate who led the study, noted that synthesizing nickelate thin films is “notoriously difficult.” The Ahn lab is one of the few in the world with the ability to do so.

Self-organizing ‘pencil beam’ laser could help scientists design brain-targeted therapies

MIT researchers discovered a paradoxical phenomenon in optical physics that could enable a new bioimaging method that’s faster and higher-resolution than existing technology. They discovered that, under the right conditions, a chaotic mess of laser light can spontaneously self-organize into a highly focused “pencil beam.”

Using this self-organized pencil beam, the researchers captured 3D images of the human blood-brain barrier 25 times faster than the gold-standard method, while maintaining comparable resolution. By showing individual cells absorbing drugs in real-time, this technology could help scientists test whether new drugs for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or ALS reach their targets in the brain, with greater speed and resolution.

“The common belief in the field is that if you crank up the power in this type of laser, the light will inevitably become chaotic. But we proved that this is not the case. We followed the evidence, embraced the uncertainty, and found a way to let the light organize itself into a novel solution for bioimaging,” says Sixian You, assistant professor in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), a member of the Research Laboratory for Electronics, and senior author of a paper on this imaging technique.

Scientists Teach AI To Think Like a Professional Chemist

Researchers have developed a framework that interprets chemical strategy as language, opening a new path for AI-assisted discovery. Designing molecules is one of the most difficult tasks in chemistry. Whether creating new medicines or advanced materials, each compound must be built through a care

Misalignment between self-view and expectations of others drives loneliness in borderline personality disorder

Chronic loneliness in borderline personality disorder may stem from unmatched social expectations. Researchers found that patients often view themselves as highly fair, but expect the worst from others, leading to deep feelings of alienation.

Scientists discover how to freeze transplant organs without cracking them

Scientists are making a major leap toward freezing organs for future use without damaging them. A new study reveals that one of the biggest obstacles—cracking during ultra-cold preservation—can be reduced by carefully tuning the temperature at which tissues enter a glass-like state. This breakthrough builds on recent successes in cryopreserved organ transplants and could bring the long-imagined idea of “banking” organs for later use much closer to reality.

Bacterial defense system builds DNA in unexpected new way to stop viruses

Scientists at Stanford University have discovered that DRT3, a unique defense system found in bacteria, creates DNA to protect against viral infections. DRT3 is made up of two different enzymes called reverse transcriptases, Drt3a and Drt3b, and a piece of noncoding RNA (ncRNA). Together, this trio makes long, double-stranded DNA consisting of alternating repeats (GT/AC).

The Why Is a Discipline: Goodhart’s Law and AI

A reader asked me a question this week that I have been thinking about ever since.

She did not ask whether AI could malfunction. She did not ask whether bad actors could misuse it. She asked something sharper:

Can a system produce bad outcomes systematically, even when intent is good, and nothing is broken?

The answer is yes. And it is the most dangerous category of bad outcome, because nobody is at fault and nothing is broken.

We have all the evidence we need. Amazon ran into it. YouTube ran into it. Hospitals are running into it now. AI labs are about to run into it at a planetary scale. And almost nobody is talking about why.

A 1975 economic principle explains it cleanly. A reader’s question forced me to refine an argument I have been making for years.

New essay: [ https://www.singularityweblog.com/goodharts-law-ai/](https://www.singularityweblog.com/goodharts-law-ai/)

Continue reading “The Why Is a Discipline: Goodhart’s Law and AI” | >

Detecting multiple cancers and other diseases from a single blood sample

UCLA scientists have developed a simple and cost-effective blood test that, in early studies, shows promise in detecting multiple cancers, various liver conditions and organ abnormalities simultaneously by analyzing DNA fragments circulating in the bloodstream. The test, described in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could offer a powerful and more affordable approach to early disease detection and comprehensive health monitoring.

“Early detection is crucial,” said Dr. Jasmine Zhou, the study’s senior author, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and investigator at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Survival rates are far higher when cancers are caught before they spread. If you detect cancer at stage one, outcomes are dramatically better than at stage four.”

How the MethylScan blood test works The new method, called MethylScan, works by analyzing cell-free DNA (cfDNA), tiny fragments of genetic material released into the blood when cells die. Because cells from every organ shed DNA into the bloodstream, cfDNA carries molecular signals that reflect what is happening throughout the body.

Attenuation of malignant phenotype of glioblastoma following a short course of the pro-oxidant combination of Resveratrol and Copper

Background We investigated a novel therapeutic approach to glioblastoma (GBM) that targets cell-free chromatin particles (cfChPs) that are released from dying GBM cells and aggravate the oncogenic phenotype of living GBM cells. cfChPs can be deactivated by oxygen radicals (OR) generated upon oral administration of the nutraceuticals Resveratrol ® and Copper (Cu).

Methods Ten patients with glioblastoma awaiting surgery were administered 5.6 mg of Resveratrol ® and 560 ng of Copper (Cu) four times a day for an average of 11.6 ± 5.37 days. Another ten patients who did not receive R-Cu acted as controls. A tissue sample was taken at operation for analysis.

Results R-Cu treatment led to marked deactivation of cfChPs that were present in the tumour microenvironment, which was accompanied by a highly significant down-regulation in Ki-67, nine hallmarks of cancer, six immune check-points and three stem cell biomarkers as revealed by immuno-fluorescence analysis. Transcriptome sequencing detected marked upregulation of pro-apoptotic and down-regulation of anti-apoptotic genes. Also detected was down-regulation of PVRIG-2P, a homologue of immune checkpoint receptor PVRIG, which is a functional analogue of PD-L1.

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