Tissue phenotypes arise from molecular states of individual cells and their spatial organisation, so spatial omics assays can help reveal how they emerge. Here, the authors apply graph neural networks to classify tissue phenotypes from spatial omics patterns, and use this approach to understand patterns in cancers and their microenvironments.
There’s no escaping the unrelenting passage of time, but supercentenarians who live to see their 110th birthday have a peculiar ability to postpone the inevitable.
A thorough health evaluation of one of the world’s oldest people, Maria Branyas, suggests that one of the reasons she lived to 117 was that she possessed an exceptionally young genome.
Some of her rare genetic variants are linked to longevity, immune function, and a healthy heart and brain.
In this Cryosphere Chat we discuss the organ preservation to cryonics pipeline, our experiences trying to convince normies to sign up, using terms like hibernation or cryosleep instead of death, and more.
Links:
• Cryosphere Discord server: / discord.
• Cryonics subreddit: / cryonics.
A Chinese research team in East China’s Zhejiang Province unveiled an innovative product called “Bone 02” bone glue on Wednesday. Inspired by oysters, this glue can treat fractures with a single injection and bond shattered bone fragments in just three minutes, according to local media Zhejiang Online.
The team leader, Lin Xianfeng, an associate chief orthopedic surgeon at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital affiliated with the renowned Zhejiang University, said the adhesive can achieve precise fixation within two to three minutes, even in a blood-rich environment. In one trial case, the procedure was completed in less than three minutes — whereas traditional treatment would have required a large incision to implant steel plates and screws, Zhejiang Online said.
Laboratory tests confirmed that ‘Bone-02’ performed strongly in both safety and effectiveness. It demonstrated a maximum bonding force of over 400 pounds, a shear strength of about 0.5 MPa, and a compressive strength of around 10 MPa. These properties suggest it has the potential to replace traditional metal implants, while also reducing the risks of foreign-body reactions and infection, said the report.
One often-repeated example illustrates the mind-boggling potential of quantum computing: A machine with 300 quantum bits could simultaneously store more information than the number of particles in the known universe.
Now process this: Harvard scientists just unveiled a system that was 10 times bigger and the first quantum machine able to operate continuously without restarting.
In a paper published in the journal Nature, the team demonstrated a system of more than 3,000 quantum bits (or qubits) that could run for more than two hours, surmounting a series of technical challenges and representing a significant step toward building the super computers, which could revolutionize science, medicine, finance, and other fields.
There’s something rather special about the Mediterranean diet: already associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, early death, poor mental health, and more besides, a new study links the diet to better gum health too.
The study, carried out by researchers from King’s College London and the University of Catania in Italy, involved 195 participants with an average age of 49, who were given a health check-up and quizzed on their dietary habits.
Those participants who stuck more closely to the plant-rich Mediterranean diet were less likely to have gum disease, the data showed – especially those who didn’t eat much red meat.
In a recently published article, I reviewed over 100 years of neuroscience research to see if some brain regions are more important than others for consciousness. What I found suggests scientists who study consciousness may have been undervaluing the most ancient regions of human brains.
Consciousness is usually defined by neuroscientists as the ability to have subjective experience, such as the experience of tasting an apple or of seeing the redness of its skin.
The leading theories of consciousness suggest that the outer layer of the human brain, called the cortex (in blue in figure 1), is fundamental to consciousness. This is mostly composed of the neocortex, which is newer in our evolutionary history.
The human subcortex (figure 1, brown/beige), underneath the neocortex, has not changed much in the last 500 million years. It is thought to be like electricity for a TV, necessary for consciousness, but not enough on its own.
There is another part of the brain that some neuroscientific theories of consciousness state is irrelevant for consciousness. This is the cerebellum, which is also older than the neocortex and looks like a little brain tucked in the back of the skull (figure 1, purple). Brain activity and brain networks are disrupted in unconsciousness (like in a coma). These changes can be seen in the cortex, subcortex and cerebellum.
As part of my analysis I looked at studies showing what happens to consciousness when brain activity is changed, for example, by applying electrical currents or magnetic pulses to brain regions.
These experiments in humans and animals showed that altering activity in any of these three parts of the brain can alter consciousness. Changing the activity of the neocortex can change your sense of self, make you hallucinate, or affect your judgment.
Huntington’s disease is a genetic disorder that is caused by an unusual number of repeats in the huntingtin gene; there make the gene too long, and lead to the production of a toxic protein in brain cells. Symptoms of the disease tend to arise when a person is in their 30s or 40s and it is typically fatal within 20 years. New work may change that, however.
Hospitals worldwide, including Germany, face a growing problem with fungal infections, with an estimated 6 million cases and 3.8 million deaths each year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Candida—a common fungus most people encounter at least once in life—is a top concern. While many know it from mild, superficial infections such as thrush, Candida (especially C. auris and C. albicans) can also reach the bloodstream and cause life-threatening disease.
This is increasingly happening in clinics around the world, where Candida finds an ideal target in weakened patients—after major surgery or chemotherapy, for example. Candida can also cling to medical equipment, like catheters, tubes, or prostheses, forming slimy biofilms that are highly resistant to antifungal drugs.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has recently echoed the WHO in sounding the alarm and calling for better prevention, faster diagnosis, and more effective treatment.
High-grade gliomas are aggressive brain tumors with poor prognosis, largely because even after surgical removal, infiltrative residual tumor cells often regrow during the latency before radiotherapy, leading to recurrence. The standard chemoradiotherapy only modestly improves survival. A crucial window of vulnerability arises post-surgery, before radiotherapy begins, where residual tumor cells are not well addressed by systemic chemotherapy.
Prof. Feng-Huei Lin and Dr. Jason Lin from National Taiwan University have designed a local post-surgical gel packing with sequential delivery of platinum agents that could maintain therapeutic drug concentrations intracranially and synergize with subsequent radiotherapy to eliminate glioma tissue. Their study is published in the Chemical Engineering Journal.
The cutting-edge drug-delivery gel can be directly injected into the surgical cavity following tumor resection. This gel provides sustained local delivery of platinum-based anticancer agents, ensuring effective eradication for residual glioma tissue that remain after surgery. The gel is designed to maximize the therapeutic impact while minimizing systemic exposure.