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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,845
Scientists build world’s tiniest hammer to bang on brain cells
Way cool.
Feb. 2 (UPI) — Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara want to study the effects of various mechanical forces on individual brain cells. Until now, however, researchers didn’t have the right tools.
To study brain impacts at the nanoscale, researchers built the world’s tiniest hammer — the μHammer, or “microHammer.” The μHammer is a cellular-scale machine capable of applying a variety of mechanical forces to neural progenitor cells, brain-centric stem cells. Eventually, scientists hope to use the hammer to apply forces to neurons and neural tissue.
The hammer piggybacks on existing cell-sorting technology which isolates individual cells for diagnostics and immunotherapy. Once isolated, the machine can apply a range of forces. Post-impact structural and biomechanical analysis will allow scientists study the effects of focus in near real-time.
Scientists utilise innovative neuroimaging approach to unravel complex brain networks
A research team led by Professor Ed X. Wu of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Hong Kong has used an innovative neuroimaging tool to interrogate the complex brain networks and functions.
The team has successfully manipulated two pioneering technologies: optogenetics and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), for investigation of the dynamics underlying brain activity propagation. Their breakthrough to simultaneously capture large-scale brain-wide neural activity propagation and interaction dynamics, while examining their functional roles has taken scientists a step further in unravelling the mysteries of the brain. It could lead to the development of new neurotechnologies for early diagnosis and intervention of brain diseases including autism, Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.
The findings have recently been published in the prestigious international academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
How breaks in DNA are repaired
Interesting read especially as we look at various areas including synbio and super humans.
The results are significant for gene therapy procedures and for our understanding of cell transformation. A team of researchers from the biology department at TU Darmstadt has discovered that the processes for repairing DNA damage are far more complex than previously assumed. The ends of breaks in the double helix are not just joined, they are first changed in a meticulously choreographed process so that the original genetic information can be restored. The results have now been published in the research journal Molecular Cell.
DNA, the carrier of our genetic information, is exposed to continual damage. In the most serious damage of all, the DNA double-strand break, both strands of the double helix are broken and the helix is divided in two. If breaks like this are not efficiently repaired by the cell, important genetic information is lost. This is often accompanied by the death of the cell, or leads to permanent genetic changes and cell transformation. Over the course of evolution, ways to repair this DNA damage have developed, in which many enzymes work together to restore the genetic information with the maximum possible precision.
As it stands today, there are two main ways of repairing DNA double-strand breaks, which differ greatly in terms of their precision and complexity. The apparently simpler method, so-called non-homologous end joining, joins together the break ends as quickly as possible, without placing particular importance on accurately restoring the damaged genetic information. The second method of repair, homologous recombination, on the other hand, uses the exactly identical information present on a sister copy to repair the damaged DNA with great precision. However, such sister copies are only present in dividing cells, as the genetic information has to be duplicated before the cells divide. But most cells in the human body do not undergo division, which therefore assigns them to the apparently more inaccurate method of end joining.
Viral protein transforms as it measures out DNA
To generate swarms of new viral particles, a virus hijacks a cell into producing masses of self-assembling cages that are then loaded with the genetic blueprint for the next infection. But the picture of how that DNA is loaded into those viral cages, or capsids, was blurry, especially for two of the most common types of DNA virus on earth, bacterial viruses and human herpesvirus. Jefferson researchers pieced together the three-dimensional atomic structure of a doughnut-shaped protein that acts like a door or ‘portal’ for the DNA to get in and out of the capsid, and have now discovered that this protein begins to transform its structure when it comes into contact with DNA. Their work published in Nature Communications.
“Researchers thought that the portal protein acts as an inert passageway for DNA,” says senior author Gino Cingolani, Ph.D., a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Thomas Jefferson University and researcher at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. “We have shown that the portal is much more like a sensor that essentially helps measure out an appropriate length of DNA for each capsid particle, ensuring faithful production of new viral particles.”
The finding solves a longstanding puzzle in the field, and reveals a potential drug target for one of the most common human viral pathogens, herpesviruses, which is responsible for diseases such as chicken pox, mononucleosis, lymphomas and Kaposi sarcoma.
Researchers identified 83 new DNA changes for human height
An international team of researchers has identified 83 new DNA changes that strongly determine human height as well as also help predict a person’s risk of developing certain growth disorders.
Height is mostly determined by the information encoded in the human DNA — children from tall parents tend to be taller and those from short parents are shorter.
“Of these 83 genetic variations, some influence adult height by more than 2 cm, which is enormous,” said Guillaume Lettre, Professor at Montreal Heart Institute in Canada.
Stunning scientific breakthrough allows DNA “rebirth” of animals from long-dead, partially decomposed tissue samples
Bring to life those old biology and museum specimens back to life. Sort of.
Let’s see Ray Kurzweils prediction of bringing people back from the dead may not be that too far off with this recent discovery. BTW — he may be interested in this one.
(Natural News) Rare animals have been sitting in glass jars on museum shelves across the world for decades, but very little is often known about these specimens. And many people would say that is exactly where they belong: on a shelf, as an object of the past simply to be remembered and admired from afar.
However, a recent scientific breakthrough may be able to breathe new life into these long-extinct species. A new technique for extracting DNA has been developed, and it’s something researchers believe could be used to help bring these long-gone animals into the realm of genomic study. (RELATED: Follow more news about scientific breakthroughs at Scientific.news)
Rare animal specimens are kept in liquid-filled jars as a form of preservation. The liquid preservative, such as formalin, often come with consequences, however. As these creatures are left in the liquid, there is a large amount of DNA fragmenting going on — which makes them less than ideal subjects for DNA extraction.
Living Forever: What it Means to Have an “Indefinite Lifespan”
Can science really enable us stick around on Earth forever? Experts haven’t developed ways to make us invincible, immortal beings who are unsusceptible to physical trauma or starvation. However, studies have been going on to make aging just another preventable disease. Effectively stalling the deterioration of our bodies would then mean humans could live indefinitely.
Peter Diamandis, co-founder of San Diego-based genotype research facility Human Longevity, Inc., spoke at the Singularity University in California last September about challenging aging and the deterioration of the body. The key to unlocking an indefinite lifespan was to improve the repair mechanisms of the body, said Diamandis. His research teams consider the possibility of using stem cells or nanomachines to regenerate our bodies.
Last year, researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine have used chromosome extensions that dramatically increased the rate of cell division, a growth mechanism of our bodies that weakens over time. The development hints at a chance to turn back the biological clock.
Gene editing has saved the lives of two children with leukaemia
A year on and we catch up with two kids who were genetically engineered to treat their cancer. This is the future of medicine.
By Michael Le Page.
Two children treated with gene-edited cells to kill their cancers are both doing well more than a year later. The baby girls were both given the experimental treatment only as a last resort, but clinical trials of the therapy are now getting underway in children and adults in the UK.
An 11-month-old girl called Layla was the first to get the treatment, in June 2015. When the team who treated her at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London revealed details in November 2015, they stressed that it was too soon to say if she was cured.