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Category: biotech/medical – Page 360

Here’s how your cholesterol level shapes your dementia risk

Scientists have discovered your cholesterol levels could be significantly linked to your risk of developing dementia. And it’s not just high cholesterol that matters: fluctuating levels over several years could increase your chances of the disease by 60 per cent, suggests a new study of 10,000 people.

The research also suggests that, even if you don’t develop dementia, a large cholesterol variability – swinging from high to low levels – is linked to an increased risk of general cognitive decline by 23 per cent.

Ancient Gene Reprograms Stem Cells to Create a Living Mouse

Summary: Scientists have reprogrammed mouse cells into pluripotent stem cells using a gene from choanoflagellates, single-celled organisms related to animals. This breakthrough demonstrates that key genes driving stem cell formation existed in unicellular ancestors nearly a billion years ago.

The resulting stem cells were used to create a chimeric mouse, showcasing how ancient genetic tools can integrate with modern mammalian biology. This discovery redefines the evolutionary origins of stem cells and may inform regenerative medicine advancements.

Nanoplastics may lead to the development of antibiotic resistance

Minuscule particles of plastic are not only bad for the environment. A study led from Umeå University, Sweden, has shown that the so-called nanoplastics which enter the body also can impair the effect of antibiotic treatment. The results also indicate that the nanoplastics may lead to the development of antibiotic resistance. Even the indoor air in our homes contains high levels of nanoplastics from, among other things, nylon, which is particularly problematic.

“The results are alarming considering how common nanoplastics are and because effective antibiotics for many can be the difference between life and death,” says Lukas Kenner, professor at the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University and one of the researchers who led the study.

Nanoplastics are plastic particles that are smaller than a thousandth of a millimetre. Due to their smallness, they can float freely in the air and have the ability to enter the body.

The future of optical modulators and integrated photonics

Despite being a mature technology in existence for over several decades, silicon photonic modulators face scrutiny from industry and academic experts. In a recent editorial interview, experts emphasize the need to explore alternatives beyond the traditional platforms. The discussion centers on innovative modulator materials and configurations that could cater to emerging applications in data centers, artificial intelligence, quantum information processing, and LIDAR. Experts also outline the challenges that lie ahead in this field.

Optical and photonic modulators are technologically advanced devices that enable the manipulation of light properties—such as power and phase—based on input signals. Over the decades, scientists have researched and developed silicon photonic modulators with wide-ranging applications, including optical data communication, sensing, biomedical technologies, automotive systems, astronomy, aerospace, and artificial intelligence (AI).

However, these modulators face bandwidth limitations and operational robustness issues stemming from the fundamental properties of silicon and other practical constraints, as highlighted by a panel of leading industry and academic experts in a recent editorial interview.

Fat cells have epigenetics-based memory: Researchers discover mechanism behind weight loss yo-yo effect

Can weight loss leave a lasting imprint on our fat cells?

Losing weight is often touted as a cornerstone of better health, particularly for people dealing with obesity and its associated health risks.

Anyone who has ever tried to get rid of a few extra kilos knows the frustration: the weight drops initially, only to be back within a matter of weeks—the yo-yo effect has struck. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now been able to show that this is all down to epigenetics.

Epigenetics is the part of genetics that’s based not on the sequence of genetic , but on small yet characteristic chemical markers on these building blocks. The sequence of building blocks has evolved over a long period of time; we all inherit them from our parents.

Epigenetic markers, on the other hand, are more dynamic: , our and the condition of our body—such as obesity—can change them over the course of a lifetime. But they can remain stable for many years, sometimes decades, and during this time, they play a key role in determining which genes are active in our cells and which are not.

ACT Study contributes to understanding Alzheimer’s disease in brain cells

Using data and samples from volunteers, including Kaiser Permanente Washington members participating in the Adult Changes in Thought Study (ACT Study), the researchers used advanced genomic technologies and machine learning models to create a timeline of the cellular and molecular changes caused by…

Mapping the disease at the cellular level identifies possible new treatment targets.

Machine learning and supercomputer simulations predict interactions between gold nanoparticles and blood proteins

Researchers in the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, have used machine learning and supercomputer simulations to investigate how tiny gold nanoparticles bind to blood proteins. The studies discovered that favorable nanoparticle-protein interactions can be predicted from machine learning models that are trained from atom-scale molecular dynamics simulations. The new methodology opens ways to simulate the efficacy of gold nanoparticles as targeted drug delivery systems in precision nanomedicine.

Hybrid nanostructures between biomolecules and inorganic nanomaterials constitute a largely unexplored field of research, with the potential for novel applications in bioimaging, biosensing, and nanomedicine. Developing such applications relies critically on understanding the dynamical properties of the nano–bio interface.

Modeling the properties of the nano-bio interface is demanding since the important processes such as electronic charge transfer, or restructuring of the biomolecule surface can take place in a wide range of length and time scales, and the atomistic simulations need to be run in the appropriate aqueous environment.

Intelciety: Intelligent Society. Are we up for the challenge?. The book “Intelciety. Intelligent Society. Are We Ready for the Challenge?” explores th

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The book “Intelciety. Intelligent Society. Are We Ready for the Challenge?” explores the profound changes that artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies are causing in modern society. Vicente Ferreira da Silva addresses how these technologies are transforming various fields, from medicine and biotechnology to robotics and nanotechnology, and questions whether we are truly prepared to deal with these advances.

A ChatGPT-Like AI Can Now Design Whole New Genomes From Scratch

Called Evo, the AI was inspired by the large language models, or LLMs, underlying popular chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. These models have taken the world by storm for their prowess at generating human-like responses. From simple tasks, such as defining an obtuse word, to summarizing scientific papers or spewing verses fit for a rap battle, LLMs have entered our everyday lives.

If LLMs can master written languages—could they do the same for the language of life?

This month, a team from Stanford University and the Arc Institute put the theory to the test. Rather than training Evo on content scraped from the internet, they trained the AI on nearly three million genomes—amounting to billions of lines of genetic code—from various microbes and bacteria-infecting viruses.