Lifeboat Foundation

Materials scientists aim to develop autonomous materials that function beyond stimulus responsive actuation. In a new report in Science Advances, Yang Yang and a research team in the Center for Bioinspired Energy Science at the Northwestern University, U.S., developed photo-and electro-activated hydrogels to capture and deliver cargo and avoid obstacles on return.

To accomplish this, they used two spiropyran monomers (photoswitchable materials) in the hydrogel for photoregulated charge reversal and autonomous behaviors under a constant electric field. The photo/electro-active materials could autonomously perform tasks based on constant external stimuli to develop intelligent materials at the molecular scale.

Continue reading “Hydrogel locomotion regulated by light and electric fields” »

Professor Ori Bar-Nur and his colleagues at ETH Zurich are pioneering the cultivation of muscle cells in the lab, currently using mouse cells as their primary model. While their current studies are centered on mouse cells, the team is also keen on exploring the potential of human and cow cells. The implications of their research are manifold: lab-cultured human muscle tissue could serve surgical needs, while human muscle stem cells might offer therapeutic solutions for those with muscle diseases. On the other hand, cultivating cow muscle tissue in labs could transform the meat industry by eliminating the necessity of animal slaughter.

For now, however, the ETH team’s research is focused on optimizing the generation of muscle stem cells and making it safer. They have now succeeded in doing so via a new approach.

The strange science experiment that blew a worm’s head off… and blew our minds.

This interview is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation.

Continue reading “The beauty of collective intelligence, explained by a developmental biologist | Michael Levin” »

“Because of the heterogeneity of this disease, scientists haven’t found good ways of tackling it,” said Olivier Gevaert, PhD, associate professor of biomedical informatics and of data science.

Doctors and scientists also struggle with prognosis, as it can be difficult to parse which cancerous cells are driving each patient’s glioblastoma.

Continue reading “Scientists employ AI to predict brain cancer outcomes” »

The current influenza A vaccines utilize surface proteins as antigens, predominantly hemagglutinin. These antigens change each season, requiring new vaccine formulations and annual administration; thus, development of a universal influenza vaccine is a high priority. In an industry-sponsored phase 2a trial, investigators evaluated a recombinant, nanoparticle-based influenza A vaccine candidate containing influenza nucleoprotein (an invariant protein) and designed to elicit cell-mediated immunity. In all, 137 healthy adults (age range, 18–55) were randomized to receive vaccine (180 µg, 300 µg, or 480 µg) or placebo as a single intramuscular injection.

The vaccine elicited mild-to-moderate local and systemic reactogenicity at all active doses. Cell-mediated responses, as measured by nucleoprotein-specific interferon-gamma ELISpot, showed statistically significant increases compared with baseline in all vaccine groups. In addition to polyfunctional CD4 T-cells and increased antibody levels, the higher doses elicited CD8 T-cell responses. Preliminary evaluation of RT-PCR–positive influenza illness among participants was consistent with vaccine efficacy.

This candidate for a universal influenza A vaccine was safe and showed promise to elicit a strong immune-mediated response. Further studies are needed to evaluate protection against infection and disease compared with the currently available products. However, durability of protection will be the key requirement if a single administration of vaccine is to have a long-lasting effect.

Now maybe we can snack happily! I think this applies to regular food too? I can eat all the Chinese and Mexican and Italian food I want? Plus for people with genetic risks can’t this not help? I hope so.

Mice fed a high-sugar, high-fat diet for most of their lives managed to escape weight gain and protect their livers when they were treated with an experimental new drug.

The small-molecule drug was developed by a team led by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio). K nown by its chemical acronym CPACC, it works by limiting the entry of magnesium into the mitochondria, the parts of the cell in charge of generating energy and burning calories.

Continue reading “Scientists Develop Drug That Prevents Weight Gain in Junk-Food-Eating Mice” »

Welcome to this special issue, focusing on the potential of pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-based therapies and their paths toward clinical application. Since the establishment of human embryonic stem (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells in 1998 and 2007, respectively, significant progress has been made in differentiating PSCs into a broad range of somatic cells. We are now closer than ever before to having highly functional PSC-derived somatic cells at purity for transplantation therapies to complement damaged or diseased organs and restore their physiologic functions. Like organ transplantation, PSC-based therapies have the potential to regenerate damaged organs that cannot otherwise be healed by using small-molecule or antibody-based drugs.

In this issue, Kobold et al. present an overview of the history and current status of clinical studies utilizing human PSCs. Since the early 2010s, many clinical studies employing human ES cells have been initiated. By 2018, the number of such studies using human iPS cells had skyrocketed. Many PSC-based therapies are currently being tested to treat various pathologic conditions, including different neoplasms and diseases of the eye, adnexa, and circulatory system. However, there are still many diseases that require further efforts to interrogate the true potential of PSC-based therapies. To advance the use of PSC-based therapy to treat a wider range of pathologic conditions in the future, we must continue with extensive basic and clinical research to establish both efficacy and safety for such new therapies.

Although clinical research on PSC-based therapy for liver diseases has not received as much attention, there is much hope for it to become a real alternative to living-donor liver transplantation. Cardinale et al. provided a comprehensive summary of the recent studies on cell-based therapy for liver diseases. In addition, artificial livers generated through bioengineering efforts are now considered to be a viable option. Aside from traditional cell or organ transplantation to restore impaired liver function, transplantation aimed at treating the microenvironment, such as inflammation, in the liver is also an effective therapeutic strategy. Concurrent research efforts in both basic and clinical studies will be crucial in making PSC-based therapy for liver diseases a reality.

“The definition of the human embryo is far from being engrained, it’s constantly evolving with scientific advances,” said Nicolas Rivron, a developmental biologist at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. In a perspective published Thursday in Cell, he and an international group of leading luminaries in the fast-moving field of synthetic embryology — or “stembryology,” as it’s sometimes called — argue that these latest scientific advances justify a new definition for the human embryo that’s rooted not in how it was made, but in what it can become.

“Because of this new path, we think it becomes more and more important to think about the embryo not in terms of how it was formed but about the potential it has to generate something,” Rivron told STAT.

He and his co-authors proposed that embryos be defined as “a group of human cells supported by elements fulfilling extra-embryonic and uterine functions that, combined, have the potential to form a fetus.”

Likewise, this dataset had 4,510 cases, 212,242 controls, with 16,380,464 SNPs for psoriasis, and 2,802 cases, 212,242 controls, with 16,380,459 SNPs for psoriasis vulgaris.

The team analyzed the aggregated statistical data using an MR approach to explore the potential causal relationship between the gut microbiome and psoriasis. SNPs with a threshold P-value of 1 × 10⁻⁵ worked as genetic instrumental variables in these MR analyses.