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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,868

Quantum technology is currently one of the most active fields of research worldwide. It takes advantage of the special properties of quantum mechanical states of atoms, light, or nanostructures to develop, for example, novel sensors for medicine and navigation, networks for information processing and powerful simulators for materials sciences. Generating these quantum states normally requires a strong interaction between the systems involved, such as between several atoms or nanostructures.

Until now, however, sufficiently strong interactions were limited to short distances. Typically, two systems had to be placed close to each other on the same chip at low temperatures or in the same vacuum chamber, where they interact via electrostatic or magnetostatic forces. Coupling them across larger distances, however, is required for many applications such as quantum networks or certain types of sensors.

A team of physicists, led by Professor Philipp Treutlein from the Department of Physics at the University of Basel and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI), has now succeeded for the first time in creating strong coupling between two systems over a greater distance across a room temperature environment. In their experiment, the researchers used laser light to couple the vibrations of a 100 nanometer thin membrane to the motion of the spin of atoms over a distance of one meter. As a result, each vibration of the membrane sets the spin of the atoms in motion and vice versa.

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Are you taking any pills to enhance performance?

When it comes to the mind, there are a host of drugs that have become popular in various settings as nootropics, from college campuses to high power startups in Silicon Valley. Of these, a few families of drugs have accumulated a collection of research studies suggesting that they could be utilized safety, and also produce a desired effect.

The first such category of such drugs that performance enhancement seekers often try are stimulants. Two common such drugs are methylphenidate and dexamphetamine, which are used routinely and safely to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. Despite their popularity for off-label use to boost concentration, however, these drugs are not really nootropics. They are actually quite dangerous if you don’t have ADHD or narcolepsy, or some other deficit, because tolerance builds up quickly, leading to dependence. Thus, while methylphenidate can keep you awake overnight or give you a boost in the morning, and possibly move you faster through a pile of non-creative work, they don’t really make you think better, and if you keep taking them you will be back to square one on performance, and with a drug dependence problem. You’d be better off with a strong cup of coffee.

Other types of memory and cognition enhancing medications have become available because they are being tested, or have shown promise, for improving memory or concentration, or for reducing apathy, in people with degenerative brain diseases. These drugs come in families, each with a flagship drug that we can use as an example here for discussion purposes.

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If you are interested in age reversal, and you haven’t read Dr David Sinclair (Harvard Medical School) yet, then I’d recommend this research paper.

“Excitingly, new studies show that age-related epigenetic changes can be reversed with interventions such as cyclic expression of the Yamanaka reprogramming factors. This review presents a summary of epigenetic changes that occur in aging, highlights studies indicating that epigenetic changes may contribute to the aging process and outlines the current state of research into interventions to reprogram age-related epigenetic changes.”

The aging process results in significant epigenetic changes at all levels of chromatin and DNA organization. These include reduced global heterochromatin, nucleosome remodeling and loss, changes in histone marks, global DNA hypomethylation with CpG island hypermethylation, and the relocalization of chromatin modifying factors. Exactly how and why these changes occur is not fully understood, but evidence that these epigenetic changes affect longevity and may cause aging, is growing. Excitingly, new studies show that age-related epigenetic changes can be reversed with interventions such as cyclic expression of the Yamanaka reprogramming factors. This review presents a summary of epigenetic changes that occur in aging, highlights studies indicating that epigenetic changes may contribute to the aging process and outlines the current state of research into interventions to reprogram age-related epigenetic changes.

The term “epigenetics” is thrown around a lot. Originally, it was coined to describe heritable changes that were non-mendelian, but use of the term has evolved. These days, “epigenetics” more generally refers to all non-genomic information storage in cells including gene networks, chromatin structure and post-translational modifications to histones. With aging, there are distinct changes across the epigenome from DNA modifications to alterations in global chromatin organization. But key questions remain unanswered: How and why do these changes occur? Do these changes drive disease and aging? Are they reversible?

Genomic organization is determined by the complex structure of chromatin ( Figure 1 ). The basic unit of chromatin is the nucleosome, which is made up of 147 DNA base pairs wrapped around an octamer of histone proteins. This octamer usually comprises two copies each of H2A, H2B, H3 and H4 (Luger et al. 1997; Hansen 2002). Within nucleosomes, both histones and the DNA itself are subject to a range of chemical modifications that affect the chromatin structure and ultimately the expression of genes. Chromatin falls into one of two major subtypes: euchromatin, in which the chromatin is open and transcriptionally active and heterochromatin, in which the chromatin is tightly closed and transcriptionally silent (Wallrath 1998; Grewal and Moazed 2003). Regulating the epigenetic network are factors that modify chromatin including DNA- and histone-modifying enzymes, transcription factors, and the more recently identified noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs).

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In a little over a month, a team of physicists and engineers from around the world took a simplified ventilator design from concept all the way through approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This major milestone marks the ventilator as safe for use in the United States under the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization, which helps support public health during a crisis.

The Mechanical Ventilator Milano, or MVM, is the brainchild of physicist Cristiano Galbiati. The Gran Sasso Science Institute and Princeton University professor, who normally leads a dark matter experiment in Italy called DarkSide-20k, found himself in lockdown in Milan, a city hit hard by COVID-19. Hearing reports of ventilator shortages and wanting to help, Galbiati reached out to fellow researchers to develop a ventilator with minimal components that could be quickly produced using commonly available parts.

“The sense of crisis was palpable, and I knew the availability of ventilators was critical,” said Galbiati, who obtained his Ph.D from the University of Milan. “We had been doing some complicated projects in physics that required working with gases, and I thought it our duty to find a way to push oxygen into the lungs of patients.”

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A “cutting edge” alternative ventilator for coronavirus patients has been developed by a taskforce. The ‘exovent’ is a reinvention of the traditional iron lung, which saved the lives of countless polio victims during the 20th century.

Unlike the usual ventilators, which are positive pressure ventilators (PPV), the exovent is a non-invasive negative pressure ventilation (NPV) device, which could be used both in intensive care or on an ordinary hospital ward.

www.cambridge-news.co.uk/…/cambridge-coronavirus-ventillato…

Developed by a task force including Cambridge-based Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, it can be manufactured in parallel with other ventilator designs.

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