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Category: biotech/medical – Page 915

MIT’s “FrameDiff” — Generative AI Imagines New Protein Structures That Could Transform Medicine

To advance our capabilities in protein engineering, MIT CSAIL researchers came up with “FrameDiff,” a computational tool for creating new protein structures beyond what nature has produced. The machine learning approach generates “frames” that align with the inherent properties of protein structures, enabling it to construct novel proteins independently of preexisting designs, facilitating unprecedented protein structures.

“In nature, protein design is a slow-burning process that takes millions of years. Our technique aims to provide an answer to tackling human-made problems that evolve much faster than nature’s pace,” says MIT CSAIL PhD student Jason Yim, a lead author on a new paper about the work. “The aim, with respect to this new capacity of generating synthetic protein structures, opens up a myriad of enhanced capabilities, such as better binders. This means engineering proteins that can attach to other molecules more efficiently and selectively, with widespread implications related to targeted drug delivery and biotechnology, where it could result in the development of better biosensors. It could also have implications for the field of biomedicine and beyond, offering possibilities such as developing more efficient photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is how plants and some microorganisms use sunlight to synthesize carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water.

Novel Therapies for Chronic Inflammation, Autoimmunity, and Allergy

Advances in our knowledge of the immune system are uncovering connections between and many different diseases.

Understanding how the immune system is activated and regulated is essential for anyone working to develop treatments for autoimmunity, chronic, and allergy, or to apply these treatments in the clinic.

This online course offers a unique way for professionals to learn from leading Harvard Medical School faculty about cutting-edge therapies to treat chronic and related diseases.

Scientists use fungus to create eco-friendly construction materials

This process could provide a cheap, sustainable replacement for foam, timber, and plastic.

The future of the construction industry is green„ with scientists developing a way to grow building materials using knitted molds and the root network of fungi. Previous trials with similar composites have been made but the shape and growth constraints of the organic material made it difficult to develop diverse applications.

Now, a team of designers, engineers, and scientists in the Living Textiles Research Group, part of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment at Newcastle University, which is funded by Research England, have used the knitted molds as a flexible framework or ‘formwork’, creating a composite called ‘mycocrete’ which is stronger and more versatile in terms of shape and form.

Genes for learning and memory are 650 million years old, study shows

A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Leicester have discovered that the genes required for learning, memory, aggression and other complex behaviors originated around 650 million years ago.

The findings led by Dr. Roberto Feuda, from the Neurogenetic group in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology and other colleagues from the University of Leicester and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), have now been published in Nature Communications.

Dr. Feuda said, “We’ve known for a long time that monoamines like serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline act as neuromodulators in the , playing a role in complex behavior and functions like learning and memory, as well as processes such as sleep and feeding.”

“Hightech” Materials From Nature — Researchers Discover Surprising Properties of the Cytoskeleton

Most biological cells have a fixed place in an organism. However, there are instances where these cells acquire mobility, enabling them to traverse the body. Such occurrences are seen during processes like wound recovery, or when cancerous cells divide indiscriminately and spread throughout the body. The characteristics of mobile and stationary cells exhibit several differences, one notable one being the structure of their cytoskeleton.

This structure of protein filaments makes the cells stable, stretchable, and resistant to external forces. In this context, “intermediate filaments” play an important role. Interestingly, two different types of intermediate filaments are found in mobile and stationary cells. Researchers at the University of Göttingen and ETH Zurich have succeeded in precisely measuring and describing the mechanical properties of the two filaments. In the process, they discovered parallels with non-biological materials. The results have been published in the journal Matter.

The scientists used optical tweezers to investigate how the filaments behave under tension. They attached the ends of the filaments to tiny plastic beads, which they then moved in a controlled way with the help of a laser beam. This stretched the two different types of filaments, which are known as vimentin and keratin. The researchers worked out which forces were necessary for the stretching and how the different filaments behaved when they were stretched several times.

Doctors RE-ATTACH ‘decapitated’ boy’s head after 12-year-old’s horror accident

DOCTORS have reconnected a 12-year-old boy’s skull to his body after he suffered “internal decapitation” in a freak car accident.

Medics in Jerusalem, Israel, say they performed the “extremely rare” operation on Suleiman Hassan after a car knocked him off his bike.

His skull broke off the top vertebrae in his spine in the hit in June, effectively separating his head from his body with just skin and muscles keeping it in place.

Carpal tunnel syndrome may be early predictor of heart failure risk

Adults with a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome are 39% more likely to develop HF during 10 years of follow-up, especially amyloidosis, compared with those without a carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis, researchers reported.

“The increased rate of HF among patients with carpal tunnel syndrome requires attention because HF is a common disease associated with high mortality,” Mark Luedde, MD, from Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel and Cardiology Joint Practice in Bremerhaven, Germany, and colleagues wrote in JAMA Network Open. “Early diagnosis of HF is a key to successful treatment, particularly for [transthyretin] cardiac amyloidosis, which has been associated with carpal tunnel syndrome in a recent study.”

In a retrospective study, Luedde and colleagues analyzed data from 81,898 adults from 1,284 general practices in Germany with an initial diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome from 2005 to 2020, using the Disease Analyzer database. The mean age of patients was 53 years and 66.7% were women. Researchers used propensity-score matching to match patients without carpal tunnel syndrome to those with carpal tunnel syndrome. The main outcome was the initial diagnosis of HF up to 10 years after the index date of carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis. As a negative control, researchers analyzed the association of carpal tunnel syndrome with cancer.