Deep Nanometry (DNM) is an innovative technique combining high-speed optical detection with AI-driven noise reduction, allowing researchers to find rare nanoparticles like extracellular vesicles (EVs).
Since EVs play a role in disease detection, DNM could revolutionize early cancer diagnosis. Its applications stretch beyond healthcare, promising advances in vaccine research, and environmental science.
A Breakthrough in Nanoparticle Detection.
Summary: A new study reveals that human accelerated regions (HARs)—segments of DNA that evolved much faster than expected—may be key to the brain’s advanced cognitive abilities. Researchers compared human and chimpanzee neurons and found that HARs drive the growth of multiple neural projections, which enhance communication between brain cells.
When human HARs were introduced into chimp neurons, they also grew more projections, suggesting a direct link between HARs and neural complexity. However, these same genetic changes may also contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, highlighting the delicate balance of human brain evolution.
Scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have developed a tool that uses light to precisely control where and when a drug becomes active, ensuring it works exactly where it’s needed.
For medical treatments to be effective and minimize side effects, they must act at the right place and time—a challenge that remains difficult to achieve. Now, a team of biologists and chemists at UNIGE has created a system that allows a molecule to be activated with a brief pulse of light lasting just a few seconds. Tested on a protein essential for cell division, this method could be applied to other molecules, with promising applications in both research and medicine. It may even improve existing treatments, such as those for skin cancer. These findings were recently published in Nature Communications.
The challenge of systemic drug effects.
Epigenetic inhibitors: A promising new strategy for antimalarial treatment? A recent study discovers a gene regulation inhibitor that selectively eliminates the malaria parasite.
A multinational research team, led by Professor Markus Meißner from LMU Munich and Professor Gernot Längst from the University of Regensburg, has made significant discoveries about gene regulation in Plasmodium falciparum, the primary cause of malaria. Their findings, published in Nature, provide new avenues for developing advanced therapeutic strategies.
Malaria remains a major global health challenge. In 2022 alone, an estimated 247 million people were infected, with over 600,000 deaths, the majority occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. These statistics highlight the urgent need for innovative research to drive progress in malaria prevention and treatment.
A new scanner which can distinguish tumour material from healthy tissue more accurately than current methods could change the way breast cancer is diagnosed and treated, researchers have said.
It is hoped the scanner, developed by scientists at the University of Aberdeen, could lead to patients undergoing fewer surgeries and receiving more individually-tailored treatments.
Scientists from the university, in collaboration with NHS Grampian, used a prototype version of the new Field Cycling Imager (FCI) scanner to examine the breast tissue of patients newly diagnosed with cancer.
Taking melatonin could help night shift workers avoid cancer, researchers said Monday.
Researchers from North Carolina and British Columbia say the sleep supplement could be a “viable intervention strategy to reduce the burden of cancer” among that group, boosting the body’s ability to repair damage to their DNA caused by their irregular sleep cycle and disruption of the body’s circadian rhythm that regulates physical and behavioral processes.
“This trial is the first of its kind to evaluate the impact of melatonin supplements on oxidative DNA damage among night shift workers,” they wrote in a study published Monday in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine..
The astounding numbers of the human body:
Your body consists of 37 trillion cells divided into 200 different types.
100 billion cells make up the skin, which is the largest organ in your body. 100 billion neurons in the brain allow you to process as many as 60,000 thoughts per day.
You also have 127 million retinal cells that allow you to see the world in as many as 10 million different colors. You have 30 trillion red blood cells, 42 billion blood vessels, and 6 liters (1.6 gallons) of blood in your body. Your blood makes up approximately 10% of your body weight. Your nose has 1,000 olfactory receptors that allow you to distinguish 50,000 different smells.
Your lungs allow you to breathe 23,040 breaths per day, while your heart beats around 115,200 heartbeats per day or 42 million heartbeats per year. You have 640 muscles, 360 joints, 206 bones and 100,000 hair follicles. You produce around 23,000 liters (6,075 gallons) of saliva in your lifetime, which is enough to fill two swimming pools.
Your circulatory system (cardiovascular system) includes your heart and blood vessels. Your heart pumps oxygen-rich blood after your lungs add oxygen to your blood.
The biological cycle of our existence seems relatively straightforward: we’re born, we live, we die. The end.
But when you examine existence at the cellular level, things get a bit more interesting. You, me, and all of the 108 billion or so Homo sapiens who’ve ever walked the Earth have all been our own constellation of some 30 trillion cells. Each of our bodies is a collective organism of living human cells and microbes working in cooperation to create what our minds view as “life.” However, a growing number of new studies have found that, at least for some cells, death isn’t the end. Instead, it’s possibly the beginning of something new and wholly unexpected.
A growing snowball of research concerning a new class of AI-designed multicellular organisms known as “xenobots” is gaining scientific attention for their apparent autonomy. In September 2024, Peter Noble, Ph.D., a microbiologist from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, along with Alex Pozhitkov, Ph.D., a bioinformatics researcher at the City of Hope cancer center, detailed this research on the website The Conversation.
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In an international collaboration, researchers have made an important breakthrough in the therapeutic delivery of microRNAs against Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a disease with no cure, to date.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder characterized by the progressive loss of muscle mass, due to mutations in the dystrophin gene. Without the corresponding functional protein, muscles cannot function or repair themselves properly, resulting in the deterioration of skeletal, heart, and lung muscles. Because the dystrophin gene is located on the X chromosome, it mainly affects males, while females are usually carriers.
Researchers have developed a strategy to treat muscular dystrophy, which uses nanoparticles as vehicles to transport therapeutical microRNAs to muscle stem cells. Once inside the muscle stem cells, the nanoparticles release the microRNA to stimulate the production of muscle fibers.