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Category: biotech/medical – Page 382

Targeting malaria at the source: Drug-treated nets eliminate parasites in resistant mosquitoes

Researchers have identified a type of chemical compound that, when applied to insecticide-treated bed nets, appears to kill the malaria-causing parasite in mosquitoes.

Published in the journal Nature, the multi-site collaborative study represents a breakthrough for a disease that continues to claim more than half a million lives worldwide every year. A lab at Oregon Health & Science University played a key role, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, of the National Institutes of Health, supported the research.

Michael Riscoe, Ph.D., professor of molecular microbiology and immunology in the OHSU School of Medicine, designed and synthesized the anti-malarial drugs, termed ELQs, that were then screened in the lab of Flaminia Catteruccia, Ph.D., the study’s senior author and Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Skin cancer is a growing threat to older adult men as global population ages

Researchers at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University in China have uncovered a sharply rising burden of skin cancer in older adults driven largely by population growth and affecting men twice as often.

Skin cancer already ranks among the costliest malignancies to treat, and an aging world means more time for ultraviolet damage to accumulate. Previous research shows older patients now make up nearly three-quarters of new cases, yet global data capturing the full scope and trend in those over 65 remains scarce.

In the study, “Burden of Skin Cancer in Older Adults From 1990 to 2021 and Modelled Projection to 2050,” published in JAMA Dermatology, researchers mined the Global Burden of Diseases 2021 registry to quantify how melanoma, , and affect adults aged 65 and older worldwide.

Daylight can boost the immune system’s ability to fight infections

A breakthrough study, led by scientists at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, has uncovered how daylight can boost the immune system’s ability to fight infections.

The team focused on the most abundant immune cells in our bodies, called neutrophils, which are a type of white blood cell. These cells move quickly to the site of an infection and kill invading bacteria.

The researchers used zebrafish, a small freshwater fish, as a , because its is similar to ours and the fish can be bred to have transparent bodies, making it easy to observe biological processes in real time.

Microscopic movies capture brain proteins in action, revealing new insight into shapes and functions

Our cells rely on microscopic highways and specialized protein vehicles to move everything—from positioning organelles to carting protein instructions to disposing of cellular garbage. These highways (called microtubules) and vehicles (called motor proteins) are indispensable to cellular function and survival.

The dysfunction of motor proteins and their associated proteins can lead to severe neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. For example, the dysfunction of Lis1, a partner protein to the motor protein , can lead to the rare fatal birth defect lissencephaly, or “smooth brain,” for which there is no cure. But therapeutics that target and restore dynein or Lis1 function could change those dismal outcomes—and developing those therapeutics depends on thoroughly understanding how dynein and Lis1 interact.

New research from the Salk Institute and UC San Diego captured short movies of Lis1 “turning on” dynein. The movies allowed the team to catalog 16 shapes that the two proteins take as they interact, some of which have never been seen before. These insights will be foundational for designing future therapeutics that restore dynein and Lis1 function, since they shine a light on precise locations where drugs could interact with the proteins.

Researchers contribute to new toolkit for battling brain disorders

New studies stemming from the Armamentarium consortium outline findings that advance tools based on Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors. An announcement about the work explains how an AAV “acts like a shuttle capable of transporting specially designed DNA into the cell.”

Two of the studies on these AAV tools were conducted by collaborative teams organized by Xiangmin Xu, Ph.D., UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of anatomy and neurobiology and director of the campus’s Center for Neural Circuit Mapping.

“This Armamentarium’s collection of work enables new tools that help to deepen our understanding of the human central nervous system structure and function,” says Xu. “Our own brain-targeting technology could help treat Alzheimer’s disease and many other neurological disorders.”

Physicists rewrite quantum rules by bending light through both time and space

The significance of this experiment extends beyond telecommunications, computing, and medicine. Metamaterials like the ones used in this research could have broader applications in industries such as energy, transportation, aerospace, and defense.

For instance, controlling light at such a fine level might enable more efficient energy systems or advanced sensor technologies for aircraft and vehicles. Even black hole physics could be explored through these new quantum experiments, adding to the wide-ranging impact of this research.

As technology advances, the role of metamaterials and quantum physics will become increasingly critical. The ability to manipulate light in space and time holds the promise of reshaping how we interact with the world, offering faster, more efficient, and more precise tools across industries.

Digital Frontier: Where Brain-computer Interfaces & AR/VR Could One Day Meet

Whenever I used to think about brain-computer interfaces (BCI), I typically imagined a world where the Internet was served up directly to my mind through cyborg-style neural implants—or basically how it’s portrayed in Ghost in the Shell. In that world, you can read, write, and speak to others without needing to lift a finger or open your mouth. It sounds fantastical, but the more I learn about BCI, the more I’ve come to realize that this wish list of functions is really only the tip of the iceberg. And when AR and VR converge with the consumer-ready BCI of the future, the world will be much stranger than fiction.

Be it Elon Musk’s latest company Neuralink —which is creating “minimally invasive” neural implants to suit a wide range of potential future applications, or Facebook directly funding research on decoding speech from the human brain—BCI seems to be taking an important step forward in its maturity. And while these well-funded companies can only push the technology forward for its use as a medical devices today thanks to regulatory hoops governing implants and their relative safety, eventually the technology will get to a point when it’s both safe and cheap enough to land into the brainpan’s of neurotypical consumers.

Although there’s really no telling when you or I will be able to pop into an office for an outpatient implant procedure (much like how corrective laser eye surgery is done today), we know at least that this particular future will undoubtedly come alongside significant advances in augmented and virtual reality. But before we consider where that future might lead us, let’s take a look at where things are today.

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