Students helped find the viruses, called phages, that treated lung transplant patient, but strategy may be hard to repeat for other infections.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,668
New tool activates deep brain neurons
Using a mouse model, Chen and the team delivered a viral construct containing TRPV1 ion channels to genetically-selected neurons. Then, they delivered small burst of heat via low-intensity focused ultrasound to the select neurons in the brain via a wearable device. The heat, only a few degrees warmer than body temperature, activated the TRPV1 ion channel, which acted as a switch to turn the neurons on or off.
Neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy have had some treatment success with deep brain stimulation, but those require surgical device implantation. A multidisciplinary team at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a new brain stimulation technique using focused ultrasound that is able to turn specific types of neurons in the brain on and off and precisely control motor activity without surgical device implantation.
The team, led by Hong Chen, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering and of radiation oncology at the School of Medicine, is the first to provide direct evidence showing noninvasive, cell-type-specific activation of neurons in the brain of mammal by combining ultrasound-induced heating effect and genetics, which they have named sonothermogenetics. It is also the first work to show that the ultrasound-genetics combination can robustly control behavior by stimulating a specific target deep in the brain.
Results of the three years of research, which was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health’s BRAIN Initiative, were published online in Brain Stimulation May 11, 2021.
U-Smell-It honored in global $6M XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing Competition
An XPRIZE Rapid COVID test from U smell it honored Scratch n Sniff can detect COVID-19 by Smell.
Guilford, CT, USA; U-Smell-It™ LLC, a Guilford-based company specializing in innovative COVID detection techniques, has announced that it has won the $6M XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing, a global effort to develop breakthrough COVID testing methods.
XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing is a $6 million dollar, 6-month competition to develop faster, cheaper, and easier to use COVID-19 testing methods at scale.
Chosen from more than 700 international companies, the XPRIZE judges awarded U-Smell-It™ the award based on scalability, ease of use, and cost.
High FGF21, Low Insulin And Glucose: A Pro-Longevity Strategy?
Papers referenced in the video:
FGF21 and Chronic Kidney Disease: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002604952100038X
The starvation hormone, fibroblast growth factor-21, extends lifespan in mice:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3466591/
Inhibition of growth hormone signaling by the fasting-induced hormone FGF21:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18585098/
Alpha-Ketoglutarate, an Endogenous Metabolite, Extends Lifespan and Compresses Morbidity in Aging Mice:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32877690/
Berberine ameliorates cellular senescence and extends the lifespan of mice via regulating p16 and cyclin protein expression:
The future of shopping: what’s in store? | The Economist
The pandemic has upended the way people buy—online retail has soared as high-street shops and malls close. Brands are now racing to exploit one of the most important weapons in the battle for buyers: their customers’ data.
Read our special report on the future of shopping here: https://econ.st/2Q8XQC2
Read more of our business coverage: https://econ.st/2OsXUw2
Listen to “Money Talks” weekly podcast on markets, the economy and business: https://econ.st/3cC4lor.
How online sales are affecting supermarket profits: https://econ.st/3ctYwcE
Are brands turning their backs on Amazon? https://econ.st/3cBLGZQ
Same difference: Two halves of the hippocampus have different gene activity
A study of gene activity in the brain’s hippocampus, led by UT Southwestern researchers, has identified marked differences between the region’s anterior and posterior portions. The findings, published today in Neuron, could shed light on a variety of brain disorders that involve the hippocampus and may eventually help lead to new, targeted treatments.
“These new data reveal molecular-level differences that allow us to view the anterior and posterior hippocampus in a whole new way,” says study leader Genevieve Konopka, Ph.D., associate professor of neuroscience at UTSW.
She and study co-leader Bradley C. Lega, M.D., associate professor of neurological surgery, neurology, and psychiatry, explain that the human hippocampus is typically considered a uniform structure with key roles in memory, spatial navigation, and regulation of emotions. However, some research has suggested that the two ends of the hippocampus—the anterior, which points downward toward the face, and the posterior, which points upward toward the back of the head—take on different jobs.
New Research Shows How to Boost Muscle Regeneration and Rebuild Tissue
In the myofiber-specific model, they found that adding the Yamanaka factors accelerated muscle regeneration in mice by reducing the levels of a protein called Wnt4 in the niche, which in turn activated the satellite cells.
Salk research reveals clues about molecular changes underlying muscle loss tied to aging.
One of the many effects of aging is loss of muscle mass, which contributes to disability in older people. To counter this loss, scientists at the Salk Institute are studying ways to accelerate the regeneration of muscle tissue, using a combination of molecular compounds that are commonly used in stem-cell research.
In a study published on May 25, 2021, in Nature Communications, the investigators showed that using these compounds increased the regeneration of muscle cells in mice by activating the precursors of muscle cells, called myogenic progenitors. Although more work is needed before this approach can be applied in humans, the research provides insight into the underlying mechanisms related to muscle regeneration and growth and could one day help athletes as well as aging adults regenerate tissue more effectively.
Biologists Construct a “Periodic Table” for Cell Nuclei – And Discover Something Strange, Baffling and Unexpected
One hundred fifty years ago, Dmitri Mendeleev created the periodic table, a system for classifying atoms based on the properties of their nuclei. This week, a team of biologists studying the tree of life has unveiled a new classification system for cell nuclei, and discovered a method for transmuting one type of cell nucleus into another.
The study, which appears this week in the journal Science, emerged from several once-separate efforts. One centered on the DNA Zoo, an international consortium spanning dozens of institutions including Baylor College of Medicine, the National Science Foundation-supported Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) at Rice University, the University of Western Australia and SeaWorld.
Scientists on the DNA Zoo team had been working together to classify how chromosomes — which can be several meters long — fold up to fit inside the nuclei of different species from across the tree of life.
The human genome has finally been completely sequenced after 20 years
When scientists first announced that they had read all of a person’s DNA 20 years ago, they were still missing some bits. Now, with the benefit of far better methods for reading DNA, it has finally been possible to read the whole thing from end to end.
Two decades after the first drafts of the human genome were published, new sequencing technologies mean it is finally complete – and could show us more than ever.