A single dose of the asthma medication zileuton stopped severe allergic reactions in mice by blocking food allergens from entering the bloodstream
Category: biotech/medical – Page 68
CRISPR-GPT Turns Novice Scientists into Gene Editing Experts
CRISPR technology has revolutionized biology, largely because of its simplicity compared to previous gene editing techniques. However, it still takes weeks to learn, design, perform, and analyze CRISPR experiments; first-time CRISPR users often end up with low editing efficiencies and even experts can make costly mistakes.
In a new study, researchers from Stanford University, Princeton University, and the University of California, Berkeley, teamed up with Google DeepMind to create CRISPR-GPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can guide researchers through every aspect of CRISPR editing from start to finish in as little as one day.1 The results, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, demonstrate that researchers with no previous CRISPR experience could achieve up to 90 percent efficiency in their first shot at gene editing using the tool.
CRISPR-GPT is a large language model (LLM), a type of AI model that uses text-based input data. Led by Le Cong of Stanford University and Mengdi Wang of Princeton University, the team trained the model on over a decade of expert discussions, as well as established protocols and peer-reviewed literature. They designed it to cover gene knockout, base editing, prime editing, and epigenetic editing systems, and benchmarked the tool against almost 300 test questions and answers.
First gene-edited islet transplant in a human passes functional trial
Uppsala University Hospital-led investigators report that gene-edited donor islet cells survived 12 weeks inside a man with long-standing type 1 diabetes without any immunosuppressive medication.
Intensive insulin therapy can delay complications and improve life expectancy. Early-onset type 1 diabetes remains linked to reduced quality of life, serious cardiovascular risk, and shortened lifespan. Toxicity from lifelong immune suppression also drives morbidity and mortality in organ recipients.
In the study, “Survival of Transplanted Allogeneic Beta Cells with No Immunosuppression,” published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers conducted a first-in-human open-label trial to test whether hypoimmune-engineered islet cells could evade rejection.
Johns Hopkins scientists grow novel ‘whole-brain’ organoid
Johns Hopkins University researchers have grown a novel whole-brain organoid, complete with neural tissues and rudimentary blood vessels—an advance that could usher in a new era of research into neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism.
“We’ve made the next generation of brain organoids,” said lead author Annie Kathuria, an assistant professor in JHU’s Department of Biomedical Engineering who studies brain development and neuropsychiatric disorders. “Most brain organoids that you see in papers are one brain region, like the cortex or the hindbrain or midbrain. We’ve grown a rudimentary whole-brain organoid; we call it the multi-region brain organoid (MRBO).”
Chinese Scientists Unveil Major Breakthrough in Large-scale DNA Editing
Chinese scientists have developed a gene editing technology capable of precisely manipulating large DNA segments ranging from thousands to millions of base pairs in both plant and animal cells, marking a significant advance in the field of life sciences.
The research team from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced the new technology in a study published online Monday in the journal Cell.
The method, called PCE (Programmable Chromosomal Engineering), combines three innovative techniques to enable programmable editing of large chromosome segments. In lab tests, researchers successfully inserted an 18,800-base-pair DNA fragment, replaced a 5,000-base-pair sequence, inverted a 12-million-base-pair chromosomal region, deleted a 4-million-base-pair segment, and even relocated entire chromosomes.
Post-prandial hyperlipidaemia impairs systemic vascular function and dynamic cerebral autoregulation in young and old male adults
Dietary fat is an important part of our diet. It provides us with a concentrated source of energy, transports vitamins and when stored in the body, protects our organs and helps keep us warm. The two main types of fat that we consume are saturated and unsaturated (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated), which are differentiated by their chemical composition.
But these fats have different effects on our body. For example, it is well established that eating a meal that is high in saturated fat, such as that self-indulgent Friday night takeaway pizza, can be bad for our blood vessels and heart health. And these effects are not simply confined to the heart.
The brain has limited energy stores, which means it is heavily reliant on a continuous supply of blood delivering oxygen and glucose to maintain normal function.
One of the ways the body maintains this supply is through a process known as “dynamic cerebral autoregulation”. This process ensures that blood flow to the brain remains stable despite everyday changes in blood pressure, such as standing up and exercising. It’s like having shock absorbers that help keep our brains cool under pressure.
But when this process is impaired, those swings in blood pressure become harder to manage. That can mean brief episodes of too little or too much blood reaching the brain. Over time, this increases the risk of developing conditions like stroke and dementia.
Protecting the biomolecules with simple peptides
In biology, cells often respond to stress by creating protective compartments through a process known as phase separation. These compartments stabilize vulnerable proteins and can dissolve again when conditions improve. The research team applied this principle to design adaptable peptide-based materials that mimic this process—offering a simple and effective alternative to conventional methods for biomolecular stabilization, which often require complex formulations and cold-chain logistics.
Key findings from the study include:
A new study reveals that extremely simple peptides can mimic a biological process that protects sensitive proteins from environmental stress. The findings, published in Nature Materials, offer a promising new approach to stabilizing biomolecules like vaccines and therapeutic proteins—potentially without the need for refrigeration.
The interdisciplinary study demonstrates how short peptides—just three amino acids long—can undergo liquid–liquid phase separation through a drying process that enables the peptides to encapsulate proteins, protect them, and release them intact upon rehydration.
“Inspired by how organisms like tardigrades survive extreme dehydration, we asked whether we could replicate nature’s strategy using minimal synthetic materials,” said the atuhor. “To our surprise, we found that simple tripeptides could form dynamic, reversible structures that protect proteins under stress. This opens up new possibilities for protein preservation.”
Lithium loss ignites Alzheimer’s, but lithium compound can reverse disease in mice
What is the earliest spark that ignites the memory-robbing march of Alzheimer’s disease? Why do some people with Alzheimer’s-like changes in the brain never go on to develop dementia? These questions have bedeviled neuroscientists for decades.
Now, a team of researchers at Harvard Medical School may have found an answer: lithium deficiency in the brain.
The work, published in Nature, shows for the first time that lithium occurs naturally in the brain, shields it from neurodegeneration, and maintains the normal function of all major brain cell types.
Scientists say it may be possible to protect aging brains from Alzheimer’s with an old remedy — lithium
In a major new finding almost a decade in the making, researchers at Harvard Medical School say they’ve found a key that may unlock many of the mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease and brain aging — the humble metal lithium.
Lithium is best known to medicine as a mood stabilizer given to people who have bipolar disorder and depression. It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1970, but it was used by doctors to treat mood disorders for nearly a century beforehand.
Now, for the first time, researchers have shown that lithium is naturally present in the body in tiny amounts and that cells require it to function normally — much like vitamin C or iron. It also appears to play a critical role in maintaining brain health.