Lifeboat Foundation

A “chaperone” molecule that slows the formation of certain proteins reversed disease signs, including memory impairment, in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

In the study, published in Aging Biology, researchers examined the effects of a compound called 4-phenylbutyrate (PBA), a fatty-acid molecule known to work as a “chemical chaperone” that inhibits protein accumulation. In mice that model Alzheimer’s disease, injections of PBA helped to restore signs of normal proteostasis (the protein regulation process) in the animals’ brains while also dramatically improving their performance on a standard memory test, even when administered late in the disease course.

“By generally improving neuronal and cellular health, we can mitigate or delay disease progression,” said study senior author Nirinjini Naidoo, Ph.D., a research associate professor of Sleep Medicine. “In addition, reducing proteotoxicity— irreparable damage to the cell that is caused by an accumulation of impaired and misfolded proteins—can help improve some previously lost brain functions.”

Impressive! It’ll take time but it shows promise. And it’s simpler than the more expensive alternative.

Scientists are devising ways to edit the genomes of immune cells without having to extract them from those being treated.

Neurons communicate through chemical signals known as neurotransmitters. Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, leveraging their expertise in structural biology, have successfully elucidated the structures of the vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), a key component of neuronal communication.

By visualizing VMAT2 in different states, scientists now better understand how it functions and how the different shapes the protein takes influence drug binding — critical information for drug development to treat hyperkinetic (excess movement) disorders such as Tourette syndrome. The work was recently published in the journal Nature.

Researchers at MIT, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Integrated Biosciences, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research have identified a new structural class of antibiotics.

Scientists have discovered one of the first new classes of antibiotics identified in the past 60 years, and the first discovered leveraging an AI-powered platform built around explainable deep learning.

Published in Nature today, December 20, the peer-reviewed paper, entitled “Discovery of a structural class of antibiotics with explainable deep learning,” was co-authored by a team of 21 researchers, led by Felix Wong, Ph.D., co-founder of Integrated Biosciences, and James J. Collins, Ph.D., Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science at MIT and founding chair of the Integrated Biosciences Scientific Advisory Board.

Precise observation using ultra-high magnetic field 7T MRI.

For the first time, a research team in Korea has discovered there is a significant relationship between depression and the taurine concentration in the hippocampus, an area of the brain responsible for memory and learning functions. This discovery provides the opportunity to publicize the role and importance of taurine in future prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of depression.

Advanced imaging techniques reveal key insights.

USC Dornsife’s CReATiNG technique revolutionizes synthetic biology by facilitating the cost-effective construction of synthetic chromosomes, promising significant advancements in various scientific and medical fields.

A groundbreaking new technique invented by researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Science may revolutionize the field of synthetic biology. Known as CReATiNG (Cloning Reprogramming and Assembling Tiled Natural Genomic DNA), the method offers a simpler and more cost-effective approach to constructing synthetic chromosomes. It could significantly advance genetic engineering and enable a wide range of advances in medicine, biotechnology, biofuel production, and even space exploration.

Simplifying Chromosome Construction

Saw this early this morning…better than getting stuck AND might work better in humans…Let’s hope! I mean, monkeys are even closer to humans than rats.

New results hint at how to perfect ‘mucosal’ vaccines, which are delivered up the nose or down the throat.

In a new paper, Sinclair and his co-authors outline a theory arguing that epigenetic changes are the underlying cause of aging [1].

It is not every day that one of the most prominent geroscientists presents a new theory of aging. David Sinclair of Harvard, along with two co-authors, Yuancheng Ryan Lu and Xiao Tian, have just published “The Information Theory of Aging” in Nature Aging. This theory was proposed by Sinclair years ago [2], and this new paper is an attempt to summarize it based on the most recent research.

The ability to store and retrieve information is central to life, which relies on the constant reproduction of complex organisms using DNA blueprints. However, on top of that digital genetic code, there is a much messier realm of epigenetics, which regulates how genetic information is translated into proteins.

A study led by researchers at Stanford Medicine questions the long-held belief that adult liver cells rarely divide:

Cells in the adult liver were thought to divide rarely. But a study led by Stanford Medicine researchers found intermittent fasting causes rapid cell division.