Lifeboat Foundation

Anatomical decision-making by cellular collectives: Bioelectrical pattern memories, regeneration, and synthetic living organisms.

A key question for basic biology and regenerative medicine concerns the way in which evolution exploits physics toward adaptive form and function. While genomes specify the molecular hardware of cells, what algorithms enable cellular collectives to reliably build specific, complex, target morphologies? Our lab studies the way in which all cells, not just neurons, communicate as electrical networks that enable scaling of single-cell properties into collective intelligences that solve problems in anatomical feature space. By learning to read, interpret, and write bioelectrical information in vivo, we have identified some novel controls of growth and form that enable incredible plasticity and robustness in anatomical homeostasis. In this talk, I will describe the fundamental knowledge gaps with respect to anatomical plasticity and pattern control beyond emergence, and discuss our efforts to understand large-scale morphological control circuits. I will show examples in embryogenesis, regeneration, cancer, and synthetic living machines. I will also discuss the implications of this work for not only regenerative medicine, but also for fundamental understanding of the origin of bodyplans and the relationship between genomes and functional anatomy.

Interaction-free measurements typically use repeated interrogations of an object that suppress the coherent evolution of the system. Dogra et al. demonstrate in a superconducting circuit a novel protocol that employs coherent repeated interrogations, and show that it yields a higher detection probability.

The genetic mutation that drives evolution is random. But here’s a list of some beneficial mutations that are known to exist in human beings.

Adam Lee

The Asgard archaea are thought to be the eukaryotes’ nearest living relatives. In their genomes, numerous eukaryotic signature proteins (ESPs) have sparked theories about how eukaryotic cells evolved. Although never proven, ESPs may play a part in developing intricate cytoskeletons and complicated cellular structures.

A collaboration between the working groups of Christa Schleper at the University of Vienna and Martin Pilhofer at ETH Zurich – shed light on the origin of the complex organisms on Earth. Scientists have successfully cultivated a special archaeon and characterized it more precisely using microscopic methods. This Asgard archaea member demonstrates distinct cellular traits and might serve as an evolutionary “missing link” to more complex living forms like mammals and plants.

Most current theories presuppose that archaea and bacteria were crucial in the development of eukaryotes. It is thought that a close relationship between archaea and bacteria about two billion years ago led to the evolution of the first eukaryotic primordial cell. On 2015, the so-called “Asgard archaea,” which in the tree of life represent the closest ancestors of eukaryotes, were found through genomic analyses of deep-sea environmental samples. A Japanese study revealed the first pictures of Asgard cells in 2020 using enrichment cultures.

Studying the large-scale structure of our galaxy isn’t easy. We don’t have a clear view of the Milky Way’s shape and features like we do of other galaxies, largely because we live within it. But we do have some advantages. From within, we’re able to carry out close-up surveys of the Milky Way’s stellar population and its chemical compositions. That gives researchers the tools they need to compare our own galaxy to the many millions of others in the Universe.

This week, an international team of researchers from the USA, UK, and Chile released a paper that does just that. They dug through a catalogue of ten thousand galaxies produced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, searching for galaxies with similar attributes to our own.

They discovered that the Milky Way has twins – many of them – but just as many that are only superficially similar, with fundamental differences buried in the data. What they discovered has implications for the future evolution of our own galaxy.

Human microproteins encoded by small ORFs have been found to be functional. By comparing the corresponding sequences across vertebrate genomes, Vakirlis et al. show that a number of these originated “from scratch” from noncoding sequences, including two very recent cases unique to humans. These cases demonstrate the rapid evolution of genetic novelty.

“This concept that cells ‘fight back’ against modified RNA is of practical importance, as it suggests how one might improve the effectiveness of RNA therapy.”

Researchers from the Smidt Heart Institute have unveiled a novel concept — they harnessed modified messenger RNA (mRNA) technology used in creating the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines, which can be a significant step in the evolution and creation of biological pacemakers.

Luismmolina/iStock.

Continue reading “A breakthrough in mRNA therapies could lead to biological heart pacemakers” »

How ethical would aliens be?

Ethics derived from biological evolution can be harsh — parasitism, invasiveness, and survival at all costs. Ethics derived from human culture is far more benevolent. Would alien ethics be based more on biology or culture? Let’s hope the latter.

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Investigators from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai have identified how biological pacemaker cells—cells that control your heartbeat—can “fight back” against therapies to biologically correct abnormal heartbeat rates. The research also uncovered a new way to boost the effectiveness of RNA therapies by controlling this “fighting back” activity.

This novel concept, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Reports Medicine, is an important step in the evolution and creation of biological pacemakers—which aim to one day replace traditional, electronic pacemakers.

“We are all born with a specialized group of heart cells that set the pace for our heartbeats,” said Eugenio Cingolani, MD, senior author of the study and director of the Cardiogenetics Program in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai. “But in some people, this natural heartbeat is too slow, leading to the need for an electronic pacemaker.”