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Category: biotech/medical – Page 554

Sulfur-capped carbon nanobelts promise novel applications

RIKEN chemists have hit upon a fast and easy way to combine so-called nanobelts of carbon with sulfur-containing functional groups. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications.

This new material has intriguing properties that make it promising for use in novel optoelectronic devices.

Ever since their discovery in 1991, carbon nanotubes—tiny hollow cylinders made entirely from carbon atoms—have been attracting a lot of interest, being used in applications ranging from electronics to medicine.

Why Don’t Machine Learning Models Extrapolate?

Introduction One thing newcomers to machine learning (ML) and many experienced practitioners often don’t realize is that ML doesn’t extrapolate. After training an ML model on compounds with µM potency, people frequently ask why none of the molecules they designed were predicted to have nM potency. If you’re new to drug discovery, 1nM = 0.001µM. A lower potency value is usually better. It’s important to remember that a model can only predict values within the range of the training set. If we’ve trained a model on compounds with IC50s between 5 and 100 µM, the model won’t be able to predict an IC50 of 0.1 µM. I’d like to illustrate this with a simple example. As always, all the code that accompanies this post is available on GitHub.

24 Incredible Scientific Discoveries Made in 2024

2024, for all of its challenges, has seen a remarkable amount of scientific discoveries by Israeli researchers across various disciplines.

From novel approaches to treating cancer to unraveling the intricacies of the human gut biome, these findings not only expand our understanding of the world but also pave the way for groundbreaking advancements in the future.

Let’s delve into 24 of the most fascinating discoveries made by Israeli scientists in 2024.

Take a look at these groundbreaking discoveries by Israeli researchers that are shaping our understanding of the world and its complexities.

AI tool uses face photos to estimate biological age and predict cancer outcomes

Eyes may be the window to the soul, but a person’s biological age could be reflected in their facial characteristics. Investigators from Mass General Brigham developed a deep learning algorithm called “FaceAge” that uses a photo of a person’s face to predict biological age and survival outcomes for patients with cancer.

They found that patients with , on average, had a higher FaceAge than those without and appeared about five years older than their .

Older FaceAge predictions were associated with worse overall across multiple cancer types. They also found that FaceAge outperformed clinicians in predicting short-term life expectancies of patients receiving palliative radiotherapy.

Biodegradable microplastics in mice gut trigger metabolic reprogramming, shedding light on safety concerns

Microplastic pollution is a severe ecological and environmental issue and is also one of the important risk factors affecting human health. Polylactic acid (PLA), a medical biodegradable material approved by the FDA, is an important material to replace petroleum-based plastics.

Although PLA has achieved large-scale application in , its brittle characteristics make it more likely to generate microplastic particles. These particles can efficiently invade the gut through the food chain and trigger unknown biotransformation processes at the microbiota–host interface. Therefore, elucidating precisely the transformation map of PLA microplastics within the living body is crucial for assessing their safety.

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team led by Prof. Chen Chunying from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed the complete biological fate of PLA microplastics (PLA-MPs) in the gut of mice, particularly focusing on their microbial fermentation into endogenous metabolites and their involvement in the .

DNA-like molecule may survive Venus-like cloud conditions

Punishing conditions in the clouds of Venus could be home to a DNA-like molecule capable of forming genes in life very different to that on Earth, according to a new study.

Long thought to be hostile to complex organic chemistry because of the absence of water, the clouds of Earth’s sister planet are made of droplets of , chlorine, iron, and other substances.

But research led by Wrocław University of Science and Technology shows how peptide nucleic acid (PNA)—a structural cousin of DNA—can survive under lab conditions made to mimic conditions that can occur in Venus’ perpetual clouds.

Connection between autism spectrum disorder and myotonic dystrophy

A recent discovery of a molecular connection between autism and myotonic dystrophy, a type of neuromuscular disease, may provide a breakthrough on how clinicians approach autism spectrum disorder.

The new study by an interdisciplinary team of biomedical scientists, published in Nature Neuroscience, used myotonic dystrophy as a tool or model to learn more about autism – effectively using one disorder to better understand the other.

“We identified a new pathway that can lead to autism,” said the research lead. “We found that a genetic mutation in a certain gene can disrupt the expression of multiple autism-related genes during brain development, causing autism.”

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