For decades, gene-editing science has been limited to making small, precise edits to human DNA, akin to correcting typos in the genetic code. Arc Institute researchers are changing that paradigm with a universal gene editing system that allows for cutting and pasting of entire genomic paragraphs, rearranging whole chapters, and even restructuring entire passages of the genomic manuscript.
MIT researchers developed a pill that can be taken once a week instead of daily, gradually releasing medication from within the stomach. In a phase 3 clinical trial, the treatment maintained consistent levels of the drug risperidone in patients with schizophrenia, and it controlled their symptoms just as well as daily doses of the drug.
Annotating regions of interest in medical images, a process known as segmentation, is often one of the first steps clinical researchers take when running a new study involving biomedical images.
For instance, to determine how the size of the brain’s hippocampus changes as patients age, the scientist first outlines each hippocampus in a series of brain scans. For many structures and image types, this is often a manual process that can be extremely time-consuming, especially if the regions being studied are challenging to delineate.
To streamline the process, MIT researchers developed an artificial intelligence-based system that enables a researcher to rapidly segment new biomedical imaging datasets by clicking, scribbling, and drawing boxes on the images. This new AI model uses these interactions to predict the segmentation.
Researchers in the United Kingdom say they have successfully trialed what could become the world’s first gene therapy for Huntington’s disease – a fatal neurodegenerative disorder that is typically inherited.
While the results of the clinical trial are not yet formally published or peer reviewed, principal investigator and neuroscientist Ed Wild from University College London says the gene therapy, called AMT-130, “changes everything.”
The highest dose can apparently slow disease progression by as much as 75 percent over three years. It also led to a significant reduction in a biomarker of neurodegeneration, found in cerebrospinal fluid, which usually increases with disease progression.
The Yale labs of Craig Roy and Jun Liu have harnessed the power of cryo-EM to solve a 30-year mystery of how the Legionella bacteria works. The findings represent the next steps in the search for new therapeutic drugs to tackle the severe form of pneumonia.
Early in his postdoc studies, Roy wanted to understand why a single protein was essential for the bacteria Legionella to cause disease.
Fast forward more than 30 years, and now alongside collaborative partner Jun Liu, the Yale professors are using next-generation research technology to reveal a level of 3D precision they could only have dreamed of.
You’re in a bustling café with a friend. The din is making it hard to tune in to the conversation. The scenario might suggest you’d benefit from a hearing aid. On the other hand, new research suggests that speech-perception difficulty might relate to your cognitive ability.
In a study of three groups—individuals with autism, fetal alcohol syndrome and a “neurotypical” control group—researchers found that cognitive ability was significantly associated with how well the participants, all with typical hearing, processed speech in noisy environments.
“The relationship between cognitive ability and speech-perception performance transcended diagnostic categories. That finding was consistent across all three groups,” said the study’s lead investigator, Bonnie Lau. She is a research assistant professor in otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine and directs lab studies of auditory brain development.
