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Category: biotech/medical – Page 372

Trichoplax: Placazoa like Trichoplax seem simple at first — a crawling sheet of cells

Placazoa like seem simple at first — a crawling sheet of cells. Yet on closer examination, they show remarkable complexity and startling capabilities!

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichoplax)

adhaerens is one of the four named species in the phylum Placozoa. The others are Hoilungia hongkongensis, Polyplacotoma mediterranea and Cladtertia collaboinventa. Placozoa is a basal group of multicellular animals, possible relatives of Cnidaria. [ 2 ] are very flat organisms commonly less than 4 mm in diameter, [ 3 ] lacking any organs or internal structures. They have two cellular layers: the top epitheloid layer is made of ciliated “cover cells” flattened toward the outside of the organism, and the bottom layer is made up of cylinder cells that possess cilia used in locomotion, and gland cells that lack cilia. [ 4 ] Between these layers is the fibre syncytium, a liquid-filled cavity strutted open by star-like fibres.

Trichoplax feed by absorbing food particles—mainly microbes —with their underside. They generally reproduce asexually, by dividing or budding, but can also reproduce sexually. Though has a small genome in comparison to other animals, nearly 87% of its 11,514 predicted protein-coding genes are identifiably similar to known genes in other animals.

Key protein that toggles between ‘young’ and ‘old’ states may hold key to reversing cell aging

There are a multitude of products for sale that promise the appearance of eternal youth by erasing wrinkles or firming up jaw lines; but what if we could truly turn back time, at the cellular level? Now, researchers from Japan have found a protein that may do just that.

In a study published this month in Cellular Signaling, researchers from Osaka University have revealed that a key protein is responsible for toggling between “young” and “old” cell states.

As we age, older and less active cells, known as senescent cells, accumulate in multiple organs. These cells are noticeably larger than younger cells, and exhibit altered organization of fibers, the structural parts of cells that help them move and interact with their environment.

Your Next Pet Could Be a Glowing Rabbit

Humans have been selectively breeding cats and dogs for thousands of years to make more desirable pets. A new startup called the Los Angeles Project aims to speed up that process with genetic engineering to make glow-in-the-dark rabbits, hypoallergenic cats and dogs, and possibly, one day, actual unicorns.

The Los Angeles Project is the brainchild of biohacker Josie Zayner, who in 2017 publicly injected herself with the gene-editing tool Crispr during a conference in San Francisco and livestreamed it. “I want to help humans genetically modify themselves,” she said at the time. She’s also given herself a fecal transplant and a DIY Covid vaccine and is the founder and CEO of The Odin, a company that sells home genetic-engineering kits.

Now, Zayner wants to create the next generation of pets. “I think, as a human species, it’s kind of our moral prerogative to level up animals,” she says.

Laser-based device can scan almost any sample of gas and tell you what’s in it

Expert sommeliers can take a whiff of a glass of wine and tell you a lot about what’s in your pinot noir or cabernet sauvignon. A team of physicists at CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have achieved a similar feat of sensing, only for a much wider range of substances.

The group has developed a new laser-based device that can take any sample of gas and identify a huge variety of the molecules within it. It is sensitive enough to detect those molecules at minute concentrations all the way down to parts per trillion.

Its design is also simple enough that researchers could employ the method quickly and at a low cost in a range of settings, from diagnosing illnesses in human patients to tracking from factories.

Chemical found in US drinking water is linked to 15% higher risk of colorectal cancer, 33% for bladder cancer

Here’s more evidence that your drinking water may be unsafe.

A new analysis out of Sweden reports that disinfecting water with chlorine creates chemical byproducts that can increase the risk of bladder cancer by 33% and colorectal cancer by 15%.

The culprit appears to be trihalomethanes (THMs), which are made up of four compounds — chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane and bromoform. THMs are found in nearly all public water systems in the US and European Union.

Bioengineers reveal key to reversing cellular aging

“Our findings suggest that senescent cells maintain their large size through improved adhesion to the extracellular matrix via AP2A1 and integrin β1 movement along enlarged stress fibers,” Chantachotikul said.

The link between AP2A1 and senescent cells, the researchers said, means the protein has the potential to be used as a marker for cellular aging.

The team also believes that the findings may offer a new target for future treatments of age-related diseases.

Madeline Lancaster — Exploring mechanisms of human brain expansion in cerebral organoids — Cam Neuro

Theme: Lifelong Brain Development.

Abstract: The human brain sets us apart as a species, with its size being one of its most striking features. Brain size is largely determined during development as vast numbers of neurons and supportive glia are generated. In an effort to better understand the events that determine the human brain’s cellular makeup, and its size, we use a human model system in a dish, called cerebral organoids. These 3D tissues are generated from pluripotent stem cells through neural differentiation and a supportive 3D microenvironment to generate organoids with the same tissue architecture as the early human fetal brain. Such organoids are allowing us to tackle questions previously impossible with more traditional approaches. Indeed, our recent findings provide insight into regulation of brain size and neuron number across ape species, identifying key stages of early neural stem cell expansion that set up a larger starting cell number to enable the production of increased numbers of neurons. We are also investigating the role of extrinsic regulators in determining numbers and types of neurons produced in the human cerebral cortex. Overall, our findings are pointing to key, human-specific aspects of brain development and function, that have important implications for neurological disease.

About this series: The Cambridge Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Seminar Series provides a forum for neuroscientists across Cambridge and beyond to discuss contemporary and interdisciplinary research topics and issues.

The seminars are open to both members of the University, external academics and members of the public. We have tried to reflect the diversity of people’s interests at the University with our programme, and the breadth of the research taking place in Cambridge. Registration and more details are available here: http://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/125062

For more information on Cambridge Neuroscience, please see www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk or follow us on Twitter @CamNeuro

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