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Category: biotech/medical – Page 758

The biology underpinning a rare genetic mutation that allows its carrier to live virtually pain-free, heal more rapidly and experience reduced anxiety and fear, has been uncovered by new research from UCL.

The study, published in Brain, follows up the team’s discovery in 2019 of the FAAH-OUT gene and the that cause Jo Cameron to feel virtually no pain and never feel anxious or afraid. The new research describes how the mutation in FAAH-OUT “turns down” FAAH gene expression, as well as the knock-on effects on other molecular pathways linked to and mood. It is hoped the findings will lead to new drug targets and open up new avenues of research in these areas.

Jo, who lives in Scotland, was first referred to pain geneticists at UCL in 2013, after her doctor noticed that she experienced no pain after major surgeries on her hip and hand. After six years of searching, they identified a that they named FAAH-OUT, which contained a rare genetic mutation. In combination with another, more common mutation in FAAH, it was found to be the cause of Jo’s unique characteristics.

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Tunnels deep underground in North Yorkshire are providing a unique opportunity to study how humans might be able to live and operate on the moon or on Mars.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have launched the Bio-SPHERE project in a unique research facility located 1.1 km below the surface, in one of the deepest mine sites in the UK. The project investigates how scientific and medical operations would take place in the challenging environments of the moon and Mars.

It is the first of a series of new laboratory facilities planned to study how humans might work—and stay healthy—during long space missions, a key requirement for ensuring mission continuity on other planets.

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In today’s column, I will be examining how the latest in generative AI is stoking medical malpractice concerns for medical doctors, doing so in perhaps unexpected or surprising ways. We all pretty much realize that medical doctors need to know about medicine, and it turns out that they also need to know about or at least be sufficiently aware of the intertwining of AI and the law during their illustrious medical careers.

Here’s why.

Is generative AI a blessing or a curse when it comes to medical doctors and the role of medical malpractice lawsuits.

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Utilizing the computational prowess of one of the world’s top supercomputers, scientists have achieved the most accurate simulation to date of objects consisting of tens of millions of atoms, thanks to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. Previous simulations that delved into the behavior and interaction of atoms were limited to small molecules due to the immense computational power required. Although there are methods to simulate larger atom counts over time, they heavily rely on approximations and fail to provide intricate molecular details.

A team led by Boris Kozinsky at Harvard University has developed a tool named Allegro, which leverages AI to perform precise simulations of systems containing tens of millions of atoms. To demonstrate the capabilities of their approach, Kozinsky and his team employed Perlmutter, the world’s eighth most powerful supercomputer, to simulate the complex interplay of 44 million atoms constituting the protein shell of HIV. Additionally, they successfully simulated other vital biological molecules such as cellulose, a protein associated with haemophilia, and a widespread tobacco plant virus.

Kozinsky emphasizes that this methodology can accurately simulate any atom-based object with exceptional precision and scalability. The system’s applications extend beyond biology and can be applied to a wide array of materials science problems, including investigations into batteries, catalysis, and semiconductors.

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However, it is a notable watch thanks to its unusual blood glucose feature, which should be of particularly interest to those with diabetes and pre-diabetes.

Huawei’s consumer CEO Yu Chengdong describes it as the result of “high blood sugar risk assessment research,” on Chinese social network Weibo.

While I’m yet to see a demo of the Huawei Watch 4 in action, Huawei’s promotional video suggests an alert will pop up when the watch thinks the wearer is at risk of lapsing into a high blood sugar state.

Continue reading ““Industry First” Watch With Blood Sugar Monitor Announced” | >

Year 2022 This new protein Newtic1 holds promise to fully understanding limb regeneration in humans. Still though genetic engineering will be needed to fully integrate the ability for limb and body part regeneration.

The animal kingdom exhibits a plethora of unique and surprising phenomena or abilities that include, for some animals, the ability to regenerate body parts irrespective of age. Now, researchers from Japan have discovered that the mechanisms behind this peculiar ability in newts have a few surprises of their own.

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Year 2021 😗

Hydra belong to a larger group of invertebrates called cnidarians, which also includes sea anemones, corals, and jellyfish. Their simple bodies have a tubelike shape with the mouthpart and tentacles at one end, and a “foot” that attaches to the surrounding rock or other solid surface at the other.

Some animals such as lizards and salamanders can regrow lost limbs. But hydra, along with some worms and other animals, take regeneration to the extreme. Near their mouthparts, hydra have a cluster of 50 to 300 cells called the head organizer; as its name implies, it directs the development of the head. If a hydra is beheaded, a new organizer can form and prompt the animal to regrow its head. Meanwhile, the head that was lopped off will sometimes regrow the lower portion of its body.

Scientists have also successfully grafted hydra heads onto the decapitated bodies of other hydra. And if a hydra is torn into small clumps of cells, those clumps that include head organizer cells will regrow a full body, Macias-Muñoz says.

Continue reading “Hydras can regrow their heads. Scientists want to know how they do it” | >

face_with_colon_three Year 2018 This detailed information about axoxtl limb regeneration is giving scientists a better understanding of how this remarkable can regenerate and eventually it will help humans regenerate lost limbs too.

Limb regeneration requires a blastema with progenitor cells, immune cells, and an overlying wound epidermis, but molecular identities of these populations are unclear. Here, the authors use single-cell RNA-sequencing to identify transcriptionally distinct cell populations in adult axolotl limb blastemas.

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High-frequency light is useful. The higher the frequency of light, the shorter its wavelength—and the shorter the wavelength, the smaller the objects and details the light can be used to see.

So violet can show you smaller details than , for example, because it has a shorter . But to see really, really small things—down to the scale of billionths of a meter, thousands of times less than the width of a human hair—to see those things, you need extreme ultraviolet light (and a good microscope).

Extreme ultraviolet light, with wavelengths between 10 and 120 nanometers, has many applications in , studying biological objects, and deciphering the fine details of computer chips during their manufacture. However, producing small and affordable sources of this light has been very challenging.

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