Cas13b can be harnessed to target and degrade RNA transcripts inside a cellular environment. Here the authors reprogram Cas13b to target SARSCoV-2 transcripts in infected mammalian cells and reveal its resilience to variants thanks to single mismatch tolerance.
In Switzerland, cancer is the second-leading cause of death. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the cancer form that kills the most people and is still mostly incurable. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of patients survive the metastatic stage for a long time, and even recently approved therapies can only prolong patients’ lives by a few months. As a result, researchers are looking for innovative cancer treatments. Researchers from the University of Bern and the Insel Hospital identified new targets for drug development for this cancer type in a recent study published in the journal Cell Genomics.
They searched for novel targets in the poorly understood class of genes known as “long noncoding RNAs (Ribonucleic acids)” (lncRNAs). LncRNAs are abundant in the “Dark Matter,” or non-protein-coding DNA
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).
Knowing that current methods to detect viruses and other biological markers of disease are effective, yet large and expensive (such as fluorescence microscopes), a team of researchers at the University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan) has developed and tested a miniaturized virus-scanning system that makes use of low-cost components and a smartphone. The researchers hope the system could aid those who tackle the spread of diseases faster, as current tools—while highly accurate at counting viruses—are too cumbersome for many situations, especially when rapid diagnosis is required.
The newly developed device, which scans biological samples for real viruses, is portable, low-cost, and battery-powered. Yoshihiro Minagawa from the University of Tokyo, who led the development, tested the device with viruses, but says it could also detect other biological markers.
“I wanted to produce a useful tool for inaccessible or less-affluent communities that can help in the fight against diseases such as influenza,” says Minagawa. “Diagnosis is a critical factor of disease prevention. Our device paves the way for better access to essential diagnostic tools.”
A humanized antibody from a recently-developed mouse model potently neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 variants by inhibiting membrane fusion.
On 30 January 2020 COVID-19 was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) with an official death toll of 171. By 31 December 2020, this figure stood at 1 813 188. Yet preliminary estimates suggest the total number of global deaths attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 is at least 3 million, representing 1.2 million more deaths than officially reported.
With the latest COVID-19 deaths reported to WHO now exceeding 3.3 million, based on the excess mortality estimates produced for 2020, we are likely facing a significant undercount of total deaths directly and indirectly attributed to COVID-19.
COVID-19 deaths are a key indicator to track the evolution of the pandemic. However, many countries still lack functioning civil registration and vital statistics systems with the capacity to provide accurate, complete and timely data on births, deaths and causes of death. A recent assessment of health information systems capacity in 133 countries found that the percentage of registered deaths ranged from 98% in the European region to only 10% in the African region.
Leukaemia patients were successfully treated with first-in-human “universal” CRISPR-edited T-cells by specialist researchers.
Even more daring, biology’s “mirror dimension” may be a springboard to engineer synthetic life forms that exist outside of nature, but are literal reflections of ourselves. To rephrase: building a mirror-image version of biology means rewriting the fundamental operating system of life.
Sound a bit too sci-fi? Let me explain. Similar to how our left hand can’t wear a right-hand glove, the building blocks of life—DNA, RNA, and proteins—are etched into specific 3D structures. Flip them around, as if reflected by a mirror, and they can no longer function inside the body. Scientists aren’t yet sure why nature picked just one shape out of two potential mirror images. But they’re ready to test it out.
A new study in Science made strides by reworking parts of the body’s protein-making machine into its mirror image. At the center is a structure called the ribosome, which intakes genetic code and translates it into amino acids—the Lego blocks for all proteins. The ribosome is an iconic cellular architecture, fused from two main molecular components: RNA and proteins.
Older adults who sleep just five hours a night or fewer have a greater risk of developing more than one chronic disease, new research shows. The findings underscore the importance of healthy sleep patterns throughout life, and especially in middle and old age.
The new study, published in PLOS Medicine, examined sleep duration and its effect on multimorbidity—or the occurrence of more than one chronic condition, like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, at once. People ages 50 or older who slept a total of five hours a night or less were found to have at least a 30% greater risk of multimorbidity.
Prior studies have largely focused on the link between sleep and the development of individual chronic diseases, but it’s been unclear how sleep duration contributes to the development of multiple chronic conditions. The new findings add to growing evidence suggesting that sleep deficiencies can affect health outcomes.
It gives new meaning to the phrase “speak your mind.
Do you remember how legendary cosmologist Stephen Hawking communicated using his special screen-equipped chair? Well, that was a brain-computer interface (BCI), a device that allows a person to communicate using their brain signals.
There are approximately 70 million people across the globe who suffer from speech-related disorders. What if there was a BCI for each one of these patients that could at least spell out words, if not speak for them? A team of researchers from the University of California, San Fransico (UCSF) works on one such groundbreaking device.
They have created a neuroprosthesis (a type of BCI device that re-establish lost functions of the nervous system) that analyzes the brain activity of a user with speech paralysis. The device then translates the brain signals into single letters and spells sentences on a screen. Reading the sentences lets anyone know what the user wants to say.
“This is the first system that combines all the pieces; efficient energy harvesting, energy storage, and the controlled brain stimulator.”
Researchers have devised an ingenious way to power deep brain simulators — Using the person’s breathing movements.
About 150,000 deep brain stimulators are implanted every year. Normally placed under the skin in the chest area with electrodes implanted in the brain, these stimulators are known to help with neurological and psychiatric diseases when traditional treatments fail.
