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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,489

Stanford University uses AI computing to cut DNA sequencing down to five hours

A Stanford University-led research team has set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest DNA sequencing technique using AI computing to accelerate workflow speed.

The research, led by Dr Euan Ashley, professor of medicine, genetics and biomedical data science at Stanford School of Medicine, in collaboration with Nvidia, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Google, Baylor College of Medicine, and the University of California, achieved sequencing in just five hours and two minutes.

The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, involved speeding up every step of genome sequencing workflow by relying on new technology. This included using nanopore sequencing on Oxford Nanopore’s PromethION Flow Cells to generate more than 100 gigabases of data per hour, and Nvidia GPUs on Google Cloud to speed up the base calling and variant calling processes.

New tool allows unprecedented modeling of magnetic nanoparticles

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new computational tool that allows users to conduct simulations of multi-functional magnetic nanoparticles in unprecedented detail. The advance paves the way for new work aimed at developing magnetic nanoparticles for use in applications from drug delivery to sensor technologies.

“Self-assembling , or MNPs, have a lot of desirable properties,” says Yaroslava Yingling, corresponding author of a paper on the work and a Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State. “But it has been challenging to study them, because computational models have struggled to account for all of the forces that can influence these materials. MNPs are subject to a complicated interplay between external magnetic fields and van der Waals, electrostatic, dipolar, steric, and .”

Many applications of MNPs require an understanding of how the nanoparticles will behave in complex environments, such as using MNPs to deliver a specific protein or drug molecule to a targeted cancer affected cell using external magnetic fields. In these cases, it is important to be able to accurately model how MNPs will respond to different chemical environments. Previous computational modeling techniques that looked at MNPs were unable to account for all of the chemical interactions MNPs experience in a given colloidal or biological environment, instead focusing primarily on physical interactions.

Teleportation Is Real, and It is Going To Change The World!

What if you could travel to the country of your choice in just 1 click? If that was possible, your train of thought would be, Let’s go to Switzerland, no Iceland…you know what, let’s go everywhere. Teleportation is a common part of science fiction characters but is it achievable?

The pandemic has been hard on us and forced us to step out only when it is absolutely necessary. But you know what, Teleportation can be the perfect thing for you. And Earth is not the limit, you can put on a suit and some oxygen cylinder and you can just teleport to the moon…Elon Musk, you there?😃

But as far as we know, everyone told us while watching science fiction, this is not possible but you know what they are not entirely correct.

Acoustically driven microrobot outshines natural microswimmers

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have designed and fabricated an untethered microrobot that can slip along either a flat or curved surface in a liquid when exposed to ultrasound waves. Its propulsion force is two to three orders of magnitude stronger than the propulsion force of natural microorganisms such as bacteria or algae. Additionally, it can transport cargo while swimming. The acoustically propelled robot hence has significant potential to revolutionize the future minimally invasive treatment of patients.

Stuttgart—Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Stuttgart developed a bullet-shaped, synthetic miniature robot with a diameter of 25 micrometers, which is acoustically propelled forward—a speeding bullet, in the truest sense of the word. Less than the diameter of a human hair in size, never before has such an actuated microrobot reached this speed. Its is so efficient it even outperforms the swimming capabilities of natural microorganisms.

The scientists designed the 3D-printed polymer microrobot with a spherical cavity and a small tube-like nozzle towards the bottom (see figure 1). Surrounded by liquid such as water, the cavity traps a spherical air bubble. Once the robot is exposed to acoustic waves of around 330 kHz, the air bubble pulsates, pushing the liquid inside the tube towards the back end of the microrobot. The liquid’s movement then propels the bullet forward quite vigorously at up to 90 body lengths per second. That is a thrust force two to three orders of magnitude stronger than those of natural microorganisms such as algae or bacteria. Both are among the most efficient microswimmers in nature, optimized by evolution.

Researchers develop hybrid human-machine framework for building smarter AI

From chatbots that answer tax questions to algorithms that drive autonomous vehicles and dish out medical diagnoses, artificial intelligence undergirds many aspects of daily life. Creating smarter, more accurate systems requires a hybrid human-machine approach, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine. In a study published this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they present a new mathematical model that can improve performance by combining human and algorithmic predictions and confidence scores.

“Humans and machine algorithms have complementary strengths and weaknesses. Each uses different sources of information and strategies to make predictions and decisions,” said co-author Mark Steyvers, UCI professor of cognitive sciences. “We show through empirical demonstrations as well as theoretical analyses that humans can improve the predictions of AI even when human accuracy is somewhat below [that of] the AI—and vice versa. And this accuracy is higher than combining predictions from two individuals or two AI algorithms.”

To test the framework, researchers conducted an image classification experiment in which human participants and computer algorithms worked separately to correctly identify distorted pictures of animals and everyday items—chairs, bottles, bicycles, trucks. The human participants ranked their confidence in the accuracy of each image identification as low, medium or high, while the machine classifier generated a continuous score. The results showed large differences in confidence between humans and AI algorithms across images.

Scientists Chasing Artificial Kidneys Create Most Complex Kidney Tissue Yet

The team noted that although other studies have been able to create nephrons and ureteric ducts from stem cells, these didn’t fully function as they would in real kidneys due to the absence of stromal cells, which are crucial for cell signaling. The team took embryonic stem cells from mice and induced these to differentiate into kidney-specific stromal cells, using a cocktail of chemicals meant to mimic those that would occur in vivo.

When they combined the stromal cells with nephron and ureteric bud cells (which they also created from stem cells), the result was a “kidney-like 3D tissue, consisting of extensively branched tubules and several other kidney-specific structures.”

According to the researchers, this is the most complex kidney structure that’s been generated from scratch in a lab. Though this study was done in mice, the team noted that it has already created the first two kidney components—nephron progenitors and ureteric buds—from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). If they’re able to also create stromal cells from iPSCs, they said, “a similarly complex human kidney should be achievable.”

A new type of killer T-cell can stop attacks on healthy tissue

A team of scientists has discovered a brand new form of human T cell that suppresses attacks on healthy tissues, which could lead to treatments for illnesses ranging from lupus to cancer.

In case you forgot, T cells are one of the most significant white blood cells in the immune system, playing a crucial role in adaptive immune response. They can kill diseased or malignant cells; however, studies in mice have shown that some of these cells may also kill T cells responsible for orchestrating autoimmune responses.

For years, scientists have believed that humans share the same cells, but until now, no one had been able to verify their existence.

Scientists “Elated”

An international team of researchers claim to have slowed the signs of aging in mice by resetting their cells to younger states, using a genetic treatment.

To the scientists, The Guardian reports, it’s a breakthrough in cell regeneration and therapeutic medicine that doesn’t seem to cause any unexpected issues in mice.

“We are elated that we can use this approach across the life span to slow down aging in normal animals,” said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Salk Institute professor and co-corresponding author of a new study published in the journal Nature Aging, in a statement. “The technique is both safe and effective in mice.”

Optogenetics reveals new insights into circuits of the brain

To date, scientists have largely been in the dark with regard to how individual circuits operate in the highly branched networks of the brain. Mapping these networks is a complicated process, requiring precise measurement methods. For the first time, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, together with researchers from the Ernst Strüngmann Institute in Frankfurt and Newcastle University in England, have now functionally proven a so far poorly understood neural connection in the visual system of monkeys using optogenetic methods. To this end, individual neurons were genetically modified so that they became sensitive to a light stimulus.

For decades microstimulation was the method of choice for activating neurons – the method proved to be reliable and accurate. That is why it is also used medically for deep stimulation. The Tübingen-based scientists were now able to show that optogenetics, a biological technique still in its infancy, delivers comparable results.

With optogenetics it is possible to directly influence the activity of neurons by light. To do this are genetically modified with the help of viruses to express light-sensitive ion channels in their cell membrane. Through blue light pulses delivered directly into the brain, the modified neurons can then be systematically activated.