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Category: biotech/medical – Page 353

Theoretical model uses neuroimaging data to link brain alterations to schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental health disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking and atypical movement or speech patterns. This psychiatric condition can be highly debilitating, and diagnosed individuals can report markedly different experiences.

Understanding the neurobiological basis of could be highly valuable, as it could inform the development of new interventions to reduce the risk of its emergence or treat its symptoms. The results of many neuroimaging studies carried out so far, however, were inconsistent or inconclusive, failing to clearly delineate the processes and brain regions implicated in its clinical expression.

In a recent paper published in Nature Mental Health, researchers at Taipei Medical University analyzed meta-analyses summarizing the most consistent findings of schizophrenia-related neuroimaging studies. Drawing on the results of this analysis, they developed a new theoretical model that delineates characteristic brain alterations linked to the psychiatric disorder.

Bridge recombinases, optimized for human cells, enable massive programmable DNA rearrangements

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.

AI system for rapid annotation of medical images could accelerate clinical research

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.

Breakthrough Gene Therapy Slows Huntington’s Disease by 75%

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.

Now in 3D: Yale scientists catch Legionnaires’ disease ‘in the act’

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.

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