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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,494

2022: A Look Ahead

As we close out 2021 and ring in what we hope to be a bright and fulfilling year, it’s time to reflect on the trends that will likely shape the months that lie ahead of us. We live in a world experiencing major transformations and exponential trends, and we’re likely to see significant developments in the new year.

So what might those changes be? Here are a few of my predictions:

COVID slides into the background.

Just as we were expecting the pandemic to fade away and become endemic, the Omicron strain surprised us yet again with a large number of mutations, increased virality and an ability to land the unvaccinated in hospitals. The fact that it hit right around the holiday season, causing thousands of flight cancellations and millions of upended plans, made its psychological impact even worse. But, on the positive side, this too shall pass. Successive mutations will likely become less deadly and eventually go the way of every other pandemic. Perhaps Omicron itself is the last major mutation. Time will tell, but it is likely that we see the end of COVID as an economy-stopping phenomenon by the end of 2022.

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Plant Scientists Find Recipe for Anti-Cancer Compound in Herbs Like Thyme and Oregano

Thyme and oregano possess an anti-cancer compound that suppresses tumor development, but adding more to your tomato sauce isn’t enough to gain significant benefit. The key to unlocking the power of these plants is in amplifying the amount of the compound created or synthesizing the compound for drug development.

Researchers at Purdue University achieved the first step toward using the compound in pharmaceuticals by mapping its biosynthetic pathway, a sort of molecular recipe of the ingredients and steps needed.

“These plants contain important compounds, but the amount is very low and extraction won’t be enough,” said Natalia Dudareva, a Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry in Purdue’s College of Agriculture, who co-led the project. “By understanding how these compounds are formed, we open a path to engineering plants with higher levels of them or to synthesizing the compounds in microorganisms for medical use.

U.S. Population Grows at Lowest Rate on Record During Pandemic

The US population is almost not growing.

The U.S. population grew at the slowest rate on record in 2021 as slowing migration, an aging population and low birth rates were exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday show.

The population expanded by just 0.1% or 392,665 people this year, a smaller increase than during the influenza pandemic and World War I in the early years of the last century. It’s also the first time since 1937 that the population has expanded by less than 1 million.

Washington and New York were among the regions with the biggest drop in people while Idaho, Utah and surrounding states gained the most, the data show.

Thousands of coma patients may be conscious but we’re ignoring them, says pioneering neuroscientist

The Neuro-Network.

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦, 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭

𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙪𝙨𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙫𝙚𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙨… See more.

It’s usually assumed that a person in a vegetative state has no awareness of the world around them. Dr Adrian Owen, who pioneered groundbreaking research that has proven otherwise, explains why we need to be talking to these patients.

Scientists Are Working to Bring Back Dinosaur-Like Traits with Chicken

We thought that all the dinosaurs went extinct when an asteroid hit the earth some 65 million years ago until recently. Now we know that some of the dinosaur species, mostly avians, survived and become birds. Scientists are trying to tweak chicken DNA to produce atavistic, dinosaur-like, traits that are embedded in the genes of birds for years.

A research team led by Yale paleontologist and developmental biologist Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar and Harvard developmental biologist Arhat Abzhanov conducted the first successful reversion of a bird’s skull features back in 2015. The team replicated ancestral molecular development to transform chicken embryos in a laboratory to turn its beak into a snout and palate configuration similar to that of small dinosaurs such as Velociraptor and Archaeopteryx.

“I wanted to know what the beak was skeletally, functionally and when this major transformation occurred from a normal vertebrate snout to the very unique structures used in birds,” Bhullar said.

Advancing Optical Signal Processing: Using Magnets To Toggle Nanolasers Leads to Better Photonics

Controlling nanolasers with magnets lays the groundwork for more robust optical signaling.

A magnetic field can be used to switch nanolasers on and off, shows new research from Aalto University. The physics underlying this discovery paves the way for the development of optical signals that cannot be disturbed by external disruptions, leading to unprecedented robustness in signal processing.

Lasers concentrate light into extremely bright beams that are useful in a variety of domains, such as broadband communication and medical diagnostics devices. About ten years ago, extremely small and fast lasers known as plasmonic nanolasers were developed. These nanolasers are potentially more power-efficient than traditional lasers, and they have been of great advantage in many fields—for example, nanolasers have increased the sensitivity of biosensors used in medical diagnostics.

Human DNA Extracted From Nits on Ancient Mummies Sheds Light on South American Ancestry

New technique means head lice can provide clues about ancient people and migration.

Human DNA

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).