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Category: biotech/medical – Page 25

New effort will get genome sequences for entire Endangered Species list

The US Endangered Species Act compels the government to identify species at risk of extinction and devise plans to restore populations and the habitats they depend on. It has seen some spectacular successes, such as the restoration of the bald eagle to much of its original range. But over 2,300 plant and animal populations remain on the list, requiring ongoing government intervention.

On Thursday, it was announced that all of those species would see their genomes sequenced and tissue samples preserved to aid future conservation efforts. The work will be done by a partnership between two unexpected parties. One is the US government, which has generally attempted to undercut the Endangered Species Act as part of its anti-regulatory efforts. It is joined by Colossal Biosciences, a biotech company that has a controversial take on what actually constitutes a species.

Colossal has always said it had a conservation focus, but its headline-grabbing efforts have been directed toward restoring species that have been driven to extinction. It intends to do that by developing a combination of gene editing and reproductive technologies that it expects it can profitably license. But its dire wolf announcement, in which only a tiny handful of genetic changes were edited in to grey wolves, have raised some questions about its seriousness regarding these efforts.

Cloud Atlas: A Sextet Of Artistic Genius, Daring Imagination And Profound, Multi-Layered Meaning

Fourteen years ago, I walked into a theater not knowing the film would haunt me.

I saw it on Saturday. Then I went back on Sunday.

#CloudAtlas is profound, artistic, brave, and brilliant, all at once. Six stories, six instruments, one piece of harmony moving through centuries. Comedy and tragedy. Drama and even farce. Past and future, unfolding at the same time.

Here is what stayed with me. The film refuses to hand you its meaning. It hides the treasure, scatters the clues, then makes you earn it. Most viewers will dismiss it for exactly that reason. The patient few get rewarded.

Movies are like music. We can all listen to the same tune, yet not all of us actually hear it. That is the real test of great #Storytelling, and few films dare to be this challenging.

So I gave it a verdict. A number I have handed to almost nothing else in all my years of reviewing film.

Continue reading “Cloud Atlas: A Sextet Of Artistic Genius, Daring Imagination And Profound, Multi-Layered Meaning” | >

Can Mind-Reading Tech Help People Hear Better?

From Vishal Choudhari, PhD, and the lab of Nima Mesgarani, PhD, at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute: A new tech monitors the brain to detect who you are listening to. It then amplifies that voice and quiets other voices nearby. Brain surgery patients recently tested the system in hospitals. They heard two overlapping conversations, one on each side. The volunteers then tried to focus on only one conversation. One video here shows a man listening to the overlapping conversations. Researchers ask him to focus on the conversation on his right. Controlled by his brain activity, the system adjusts the volume. In another experiment, he again focuses his attention on the right. The system notices, amplifying a conversation about bread. Then, researchers ask him to switch to the left conversation. The mind reading system turns about another conversation, about repairs. In a different experience, a volunteer can freely choose what to listen to. He starts on the right. A graph appears, showing the system monitoring his brain activity. What happens when he switches from right to left? The system spots his shift in attention and adjusts the volume. Scientists asked volunteers about the experience. “In the second section, what I was listening to was louder, and the other thing was quieter. And in the first section, they were both equally loud. That’s super dope.” “I think if you could really implement it in the hearing aids, if this is the goal, I think it would be really helpful to just be able to have someone who is hard of hearing be able to kind of pinpoint exactly the conversation they want to have, especially if you’re in a location with a lot of people.” “Well I just keep thinking about about Uncle Aaron. Can you imagine if this technology existed in a world that he could access it? He might actually live a much more peaceful… life.”

New bacteria-based cooling material could help electronics and EV batteries run cooler

Next-generation electronic devices like newer computers and other high-power devices require more energy to run. When they are working hard, the intense heat they generate can limit their performance and reliability. That’s why scientists are trying to find better and more sustainable materials to help cool devices down.

Weinan Xu, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has developed a novel concept for the fabrication and processing of thermal interface materials based on synergistic microbial biosynthesis, which is a way of making useful materials with the help of microbes like bacteria.

Thermal interface materials are specialized substances inserted between electronic and cooling devices to eliminate tiny air pockets so heat can move out of the device faster. By changing how the bacteria are grown and how the material is processed, the material’s ability to move heat, known as thermal conductivity, can be adjusted.

How ‘peacemakers’ of the immune system could unlock long-term disease remission

“Peacemaker” immune cells could help treat diseases ranging from type 1 diabetes to neurodegeneration by restoring immune tolerance, according to a new paper in Frontiers in Science.

From cancer, diabetes and chronic infections to cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and reproductive conditions, inflammation is increasingly cited as a driver of a broad range of diseases. Immune cells called regulatory T cells (Tregs)—originally defined as “suppressor” cells that stop other immune cells from attacking the body—are being explored as “living drugs” that could eventually be adapted to target many diseases with an inflammatory component.

Such an approach, which aims to tailor Treg therapies to specific diseases and tissues, could support more precise control of immune responses. In autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection, Tregs could even help shift treatment from broad immunosuppression, which brings myriad risks, toward restored immune tolerance and longer-term disease control.

Turning low-value diamond dust into high-performance quantum materials

Diamonds have long been coveted for their beauty. Their dazzling color and clarity make them perfect candidates for luxury jewelry. However, it’s their other unique characteristics, including their hardness, thermal conductivity and chemical resistance, that make diamonds suitable for various applications in industry and advanced technologies.

At the quantum scale, carefully engineered diamonds can behave like tiny sensors—able to ‘feel’ magnetic signals from nearby molecules. In simple terms, they can pick up incredibly faint signals that would otherwise be invisible to conventional instruments. This capability could help us detect contaminants in water, identify disease biomarkers and monitor chemical processes in real time.

The project strengthens one of Australia’s most important international science partnerships, bringing together complementary expertise in quantum materials, advanced manufacturing and characterization to accelerate the development of next-generation sensing technologies.

X-ray snapshots reveal how viral shells change shape as they dry out

When viruses travel through the air in tiny droplets, they can quickly start to dry out. Yet many viruses remain infectious after rehydration—something that is still not fully understood. Now, an international team of researchers has directly observed at the European XFEL how the protein shells of viruses can change shape during dehydration, offering new clues to viral resilience and opening new possibilities for virology research. The results, published in Light: Science & Applications, lay the groundwork for potential applications in virology and public health and can, for instance, help develop antiviral strategies.

At the SPB/SFX instrument of the European XFEL, Abhishek Mall from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg (MPSD) and his colleagues explored the structural dynamics of the protein shells—called capsids—that enclose the genetic material of viruses. Specifically, they examined the behavior of capsids of the bacteriophage MS2 under conditions of dehydration. MS2 is an icosahedral, i.e., shaped by 20 triangular surfaces that form a sphere, single-stranded RNA virus that infects the bacterium Escherichia coli and is widely used as a model system in virology.

The capsid’s design is critical for protecting the viral genome and helping the virus interact with host cells. However, viruses are often confronted with environments that challenge their structural integrity, for example through dehydration. Theoretical studies have long suggested that capsids may undergo low-energy “buckling transitions”—sudden changes in shape—to adapt to such stresses, but direct experimental evidence has been lacking.

Synthetic DNA toolkit expands scientists’ ability to recognize genetic targets

A new method for recognizing and targeting DNA that dramatically expands the range of genetic sequences scientists can identify has been developed by experts at the University of Portsmouth. Published this week in Nature Communications, the research opens new possibilities for gene-targeting technologies, molecular diagnostics and DNA nanotechnology.

Dr. David Rusling, associate professor in bioengineering from the University of Portsmouth’s School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, said, Our lab develops synthetic molecules that can recognize and bind to unique gene sequences. By introducing synthetic DNA bases into these molecules, we’ve been able to significantly improve how they recognize their targets.

I’ve worked in this area for around 20 years, and this is the first time we’ve had a system that combines strong recognition under physiological conditions with building blocks that are commercially available to other researchers.

Artificial DNA tiles could deliver drugs and monitor neurons non-disruptively

Living cells constantly exchange ions (i.e., charged particles) via the thin barrier that surrounds their interior, known as the outer membrane. Neuroscientists and medical researchers have long been trying to devise effective methods to measure this exchange of ions, which is known to be associated with communication between neurons and various other crucial physiological processes.

While techniques developed so far work relatively well, they rely on inserting tiny pipettes or electrodes into cells. These tools inevitably pierce the cells’ outer membranes, damaging cells and disrupting the intracellular milieu and machinery.

Researchers at Purdue University and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently nanoengineered new biohybrid devices based on artificial DNA that could be used to track electrical signals sent or received by cells without breaking through the membrane and disrupting their functions.

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