The covid-19 pandemic has reinforced humanity’s dependence on modern tech, but the same tools that enable remote working are also being used to spread disinformation and perpetuate cybercrime. Ambivalence towards technology is nothing new.
To figure out how the body changes over time, researchers are increasingly looking to understand epigenetics, the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself. This scientific endeavor extends to teeth as well.
Yang Chai, associate dean of research at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, reported in a recent article how he and colleagues discovered that epigenetic regulation can control tooth root patterning and development.
“This is an aspect that doesn’t involve change in the DNA sequence, but it’s basically through the control where you make the genes available or unavailable for transcription, which can determine the pattern,” he explained.
In a new study, researchers have shown that antibiotic cycling — which involves doctors switching between antibiotics to overcome antibiotic resistance — may be an ineffective and unsustainable strategy.
New research sheds light on the potential limitations of ‘antibiotic cycling’ as a way of combatting antibiotic resistance.
Researchers at the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine have discovered how changes in aging skeletal stem cells may be an underlying cause of poor fracture healing, osteoporosis and various blood disorders as well as generalized inflammation and aging (sometimes called “inflamm-aging”) of cells and systems throughout the body. However, the researchers are also discovering how they might reinvigorate aging skeletal stem cell so that they start acting younger again, potentially reversing these changes.
“Skeletal stem cells give rise to bone, cartilage, and special cells that provide a niche or nursery for blood and immune stem cells to develop,” said Charles Chan, PhD, a member of the institute and an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and Immunology. “So if aged skeletal stem cells are not performing well, they can contribute to a wide variety of the disorders that we find in older people.”
The Research was published in the journal Nature. Chan and professor Michael Longaker, MD, are senior authors on the paper. Longaker is the Dean P. and Louise Mitchell Professor in the School of Medicine and a member of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Postdoctoral fellow Thomas Ambrosi, PhD is a co-first author along with former medical student Owen Marecic, MD and former postdoctoral fellow Adrian McArdle, MD, PhD.
Hematopoietic stem cells—the precursors to blood cells—have been notoriously difficult to grow in a dish, a critical tool in basic research. Scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified the underlying issue and developed a method to keep cultured cells healthy. These findings, they say, are positive news for patients seeking stem cell transplants—and may hint at a new way to ward off aging.
The findings will be published in the August 12 2021 online issue of Cell Stem Cell.
In bone marrow transplants, hematopoietic stem cells are infused intravenously to reestablish blood production in patients whose bone marrow or immune system is damaged. The procedure is used to treat diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia and immune deficiency disorders. However, donor stem cells are not always available for patients who need them.
Steroid-based inhalers deliver life-saving medication for millions of asthma sufferers, providing relief and the ability to simply breathe. Unfortunately, inhalers do not work for all patients, and with rates on the rise for a disease that leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths world-wide each year, new asthma treatments and strategies are needed.
A team of UConn researchers—including Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Jessica Rouge and Associate Professor of Pathobiology in the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources Steven Szczepanek—are collaborating to develop novel asthma therapeutics using gene-silencing nanocapsules in a bid to help patients who aren’t benefiting from existing treatments. Their research was published in ACS Nano.
“When treating asthma, many people think of small molecule anti-inflammatory medications as the way to go, but there are plenty of patients who have asthma who do not respond to corticosteroids,” says Rouge. “There’s an unmet need for creating different therapeutics that can suppress asthma for this group of people.”
A 21st Century Mystery School — “Creating New Paradigms In Wellness And Wisdom Never Seen Before, And Never More Needed Than Now” — Dr. Dennis McKenna, Founder, McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy.
Dr. Dennis McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist, research pharmacognosist, lecturer, author, and Founder of the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy (www.mckenna.academy).
Dr. McKenna is a founding board member and the director of ethnopharmacology at the Heffter Research Institute, a non-profit organization concerned with the investigation of the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelic medicines. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the American Botanical Council; as Founder and Executive Director for the Institute for Natural Products Research; as an Independent Research Consultant to the Phytomedicine and Nutraceutical Industry; was formerly on the Editorial Board of Phytomedicine, International Journal of Phytotherapy and Phytopharmacology; and is an adjunct professor in the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. McKenna received his Master’s Degree in Botany from the University of Hawaii in 1,979 his Ph.D. in Botanical Sciences from the University of British Columbia in 1,984 and continued into post-doctoral research fellowships in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and in the Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine.
Dr. McKenna’s research led to the development of natural products for the Aveda Corporation, as well as greater awareness of natural products and medicines. He has authored or co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and written multiple books, including “The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss: My Life with Terence McKenna”, co-author of “The Invisible Landscape” with his brother Terence, and co-author of a widely recognized reference work on herbal medicines, titled “Botanical Medicines: the Desk Reference for Major Herbal Supplements”.
In other words, the mix of positives and negatives puts this potent new suite of technologies on a knife-edge. Do we have confidence that a handful of companies that have already lost public trust can take AI in the right direction? We should have ample reason for worry considering the business models driving their motivations. To advertising-driven companies like Google and Facebook, it’s clearly beneficial to elevate content that travels faster and draws more attention—and misinformation usually does —while micro-targeting that content by harvesting user data. Consumer product companies, such as Apple, will be motivated to prioritize AI applications that help differentiate and sell their most profitable products—hardly a way to maximize the beneficial impact of AI.
Yet another challenge is the prioritization of innovation resources. The shift online during the pandemic has led to outsized profits for these companies, and concentrated even more power in their hands. They can be expected to try to maintain that momentum by prioritizing those AI investments that are most aligned with their narrow commercial objectives while ignoring the myriad other possibilities. In addition, Big Tech operates in markets with economies of scale, so there is a tendency towards big bets that can waste tremendous resources. Who remembers IBM’s Watson initiative? It aspired to become the universal, go-to digital decision tool, especially in healthcare—and failed to live up to the hype, as did the trendy driverless car initiatives of Amazon and Google parent Alphabet. While failures, false starts, and pivots are a natural part of innovation, expensive big failures driven by a few enormously wealthy companies divert resources away from more diversified investments across a range of socially productive applications.
Despite AI’s growing importance, U.S. policy on how to manage the technology is fragmented and lacks a unified vision. It also appears to be an afterthought, with lawmakers more focused on Big Tech’s anti-competitive behavior in its main markets—from search to social media to app stores. This is a missed opportunity, because AI has the potential for much deeper societal impacts than search, social media, and apps.
An add-on device for smartphones could replace blood glucose meters for measuring blood sugar. Blood sugar measurements are essential for diabetes patients who need to know their blood glucose concentration in order to regulate it with insulin. Failure to do so might result in complications from the disease. The device, designed by researchers in Taiwan, achieved 100% accuracy in a test with 20 blood samples from diabetes patients (J. Biomed. Opt. 10.1117/1.JBO.24.2.027002).
The researchers designed a compact device containing no electrical components that can be used in combination with a smartphone. The light from the smartphone’s display reflects onto the blood glucose test site (BGTS) inside the device, which contains a colorimetric test strip. The user adds a blood drop to the test strip, which is then assessed for a colour change using the phone’s front camera.
In this study, the blood drop was obtained from a vein, but the device is designed to work on drops extracted from the patient’s finger using a disposable lance that is then inserted into the device. The observed colour is split into its red, green and blue components. The researchers used the green component as an indicator of blood glucose concentration, as it could reliably distinguish the widest concentration range out of the three components.
