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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,477

Scientists Used CRISPR to Trace Every Human Gene to Its Function

The vision didn’t exactly work out. DNA sequences, while capturing extremely powerful genetic information, don’t necessarily translate to indicating how our bodies behave. Genes can turn on or off in different tissues depending on the cell’s need. Reading a DNA sequence for any gene is like parsing the base code of a cell’s internal program. There’s the raw genetic code—the genotype—which determines the phenotype, life’s software that controls how cells behave. Linking the two has taken decades of painstaking experiments, slowly building up an encyclopedia of knowledge that decodes the influence of a gene on biological functions.

A new study ramped up the effort. Led by Drs. Thomas Norman and Jonathan Weissman at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the University of California, San Francisco, respectively, the team built a Rosetta Stone for translating genotypes to phenotypes, with the help of CRISPR.

They went big. Changing gene expression in over 2.5 million human cells, the tech, dubbed Perturb-seq, comprehensively mapped how each genetic perturbation alters the cell. The technology centers around a sort of CRISPR on steroids. Once introduced into cells, Perturb-seq rapidly changes thousands of genes—a brutal shakeup at the genomic scale to see how single cells respond.

The 14th Century Black Death Started in Kyrgyzstan

Without antibiotics or any understanding of how the disease spread, The Black Death wiped out between 30 and 50% of Europe’s population. It got its name from the spots that appeared on those who were infected. The name bubonic plague refers to buboes which were painfully swollen lymph nodes that bulged. The Black Death infections included other symptoms such as delirium, high fever, and vomiting.

The key to uncovering the origin relies on evidence from three women who were buried near Lake Issyk Kul on the edge of the Tian Shan mountains. They died in 1,338 and 1,339 of what was referenced on their grave markers as a pestilence. Nearby were many more grave markers covering the decade before The Black Death arrived in Europe.

Y. Pestis was a bacterium that resided in fleas which then past it on to animals and humans through bites. Rats were seen as the likely source of Europe’s outbreak. But humans were facilitators of the spread along trade routes from Central Asia to Europe. What we do know is that the original strain of Y. Pestis mutated into four variants with one of those arriving in Europe seven years after the Kyrgyzstan outbreak.

MRNA treatment repairs mouse hearts to “near normal” after heart attack

Researchers at the University of Houston have demonstrated a new technique for helping heart cells regenerate after a heart attack, using mRNA to return the cells to a stem-cell-like state. Tests in mice showed drastic improvements to heart function a month after a heart attack.

Unlike most tissues in the body, heart cells have a limited ability to regenerate after injury. That’s a big part of why heart attacks are so deadly – afterwards, non-beating scar tissue forms instead, which can lead to further attacks and eventually heart failure.

In recent years, scientists have been investigating how to repair broken hearts by regenerating the cells, with some success seen using placental stem cells, reprogramming structural cells into ones that beat, or using stem cell messengers to induce the heart to self-repair. Others have identified transcription factors that can get heart cells to begin replicating again.

From Pessimism to Optimism Despite the Headlines

Why we need to adopt an abundance mindset.

Peter Diamandis shared an email blast about dire headlines that keep us on edge: the war in Ukraine, food and gasoline prices, climate change, and the neverending pandemic. Getting away from bad news is difficult, it appears, because of the way we are wired. Mass media feeds the bad far more than the good.

In his missive, Peter talks about Matt Ridley, a zoologist, who wrote and published The Rational Optimist in 2010. The book takes a profoundly optimistic view of human progress, a counterblast to the prevailing pessimism of our day. Ridley coined the phrase “moaning pessimism” to describe the current state.

The following summarizes Peter’s talking points joined by some editorializing on my part. I welcome your optimism, less so your pessimism in any comments you wish to share with my subscribers and casual visitors and readers.

Is there any reason for optimism today asks Peter? A glance at current headlines is enough to set anybody on edge. And with an endless media stream of bad press that includes online and hard copy, it’s hard to be optimistic. What makes all of this worse is that evolution has shaped us to be acutely aware of danger so the bad gets larger mindshare than anything good and our ability to appreciate the positive that is happening is compromised.

Single brain scan can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease

The research uses machine learning technology to look at structural features within the brain, including in regions not previously associated with Alzheimer’s. The advantage of the technique is its simplicity and the fact that it can identify the disease at an early stage when it can be very difficult to diagnose.

Although there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, getting a diagnosis quickly at an early stage helps patients. It allows them to access help and support, get treatment to manage their symptoms and plan for the future. Being able to accurately identify patients at an early stage of the disease will also help researchers to understand the that trigger the disease, and support development and trials of new treatments.

The research is published in the Nature Portfolio Journal, Communications Medicine.

Rune Labs secures FDA clearance to use Apple Watch to track Parkinson’s symptoms

Rune Labs, a precision neurology company, has announced its StrivePD software ecosystem for Parkinson’s disease has been granted 510(k) clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to collect patient symptom data through measurements made by Apple Watch.

By combining powerful wearable technology and self-reported symptom information with brain imaging, electrophysiology, genetic and other clinical data, StrivePD enables a data-driven approach to care management and clinical trial design for Parkinson’s.

Longevity. Technology: With this clearance, the Rune Labs’ StrivePD app enables precision clinical care and trial participation for tens of thousands of Parkinson’s patients who already use these devices in their daily lives.

Tour of Real-World Machine Learning Problems

Mike LorreyThe arguments I put into my article in The Space Review for the Space Force are valid to this discussion. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3576/1

Real-world examples make the abstract description of machine learning become concrete.

In this post you will go on a tour of real world machine learning problems. You will see how machine learning can actually be used in fields like education, science, technology and medicine.

Each machine learning problem listed also includes a link to the publicly available dataset. This means that if a particular concrete machine learning problem interest you, you can download the dataset and start practicing immediately.

Liz Parrish at the Digital Enterprise Show 2022 in Málaga, Spain

Enjoy the talk given by Liz Parrish on June 14, 2022 during the Digital Enterprise Show 2022. The event took place from June 14th to the 16th in Málaga, Spain.

BioViva Science is using bioinformatics to improve gene therapies to enhance healthy human longevity and combat age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. TimeKeeper™ is an epigenetic clock and the BioViva BioVault™ is a bioinformatics database for researchers and consumers.

Gene Therapy for Interstellar Travel

Space is not a hospitable place. Radiation, zero gravity, and the vast distances between stops make interstellar travel look like a pipe dream right now, but they can be made more manageable with gene therapy. Along with obvious choices like follistatin to fight the loss of muscle mass, anti-aging gene therapies for telomerase induction, and Klotho expression can promote overall health. Keeping the crew healthy is essential when the nearest hospital could be billions of miles away.

In a statement to Astronomy Magazine, Dr João Pedro de Magalhães said “this roadmap sets the stage for enhancing human biology beyond our natural limits in ways that will confer not only longevity and disease resistance but will be essential for future space exploration.” There’s a big overlap between the genes needed to keep people healthy on earth and the genes needed to keep them safe in space.

There are a vast array of genes that will likely prove helpful to making long space voyages safe and comfortable. A vector, like BioViva’s CMV, will be needed to deliver the substantial genetic payloads astronauts will want to take with them into space.

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