Lifeboat Foundation

In a recent article published in the journal Nutrition, researchers in Australia summarized how diet could help decrease low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc) or triglyceride concentrations in polygenic hypercholesterolemia.

Study: A Review of Low-Density Lipoprotein-Lowering Diets in the Age of Anti-Sense Technology. Image Credit: Ralwell / Shutterstock.

Elevated LDLc or dyslipidemia, including high levels of total cholesterol, increases the risk of cardiometabolic disorders and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), especially ischemic heart disease (IHD), if not managed in time. Pharmacological treatment is sometimes a prerequisite for cases with complex dyslipidemia with a genetic component. Subsequently, pharmacological research yielded several highly effective drugs based on monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy, some of which researchers even reviewed in this paper.

Join us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/MichaelLustgartenPhD

Discount Links:
NAD+ Quantification: https://www.jinfiniti.com/intracellular-nad-test/
Use Code: ConquerAging At Checkout.

Continue reading “NAD Test #2: Impact of NMN?” »

Scientists from Denmark and China have estimated germline mutation rates across vertebrates by sequencing and comparing genetic samples from 151 mother, father, and offspring trios from 68 species of mammals, fishes, birds and reptiles. A bioinformatics pipeline was designed to read, analyze and compare the genome mutations that occur yearly and between generations in each species.

The research was published March 1, 2023, in the journal Nature.

Knowing the germline mutation rate could allow a greater understanding of evolutionary drivers and be used to estimate when a species first arose. Despite the variety of evolutionary paths seen in 68 different species, researchers found the germline mutation rate to be relatively conserved.

George Church is a geneticist known for his pioneering work in developing new technologies for genome sequencing, editing, and synthesis. He has also been involved in research on genome engineering and gene therapy.

Links.
https://wyss.harvard.edu/team/core-faculty/george-church/
https://arep.med.harvard.edu/

Continue reading “George Church: Biomanufacturing, CRISPR,1 million cell edits, Woolly mammoth-Learning with Lowell-164” »

Backed by Google Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners and more, Chroma Medicine announced the closing of a $135 million Series B financing Wednesday.

A new study from Sanford Burnham Prebys has discovered a drug that can spur liver regeneration in patients with Alagille syndrome.

For the first time, research conducted by Associate Professor Duc Dong, Ph.D. has revealed that the detrimental effects of Alagille syndrome, a genetic disorder that has no cure, can be reversed using a single drug. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have the potential to revolutionize the treatment approach for this rare condition, and could also shed light on more widespread diseases.

“Alagille syndrome is widely considered an incurable disease, but we believe we’re on the way to changing that,” says Dong, who is also the associate dean of admissions for Sanford Burnham Prebys’ graduate school. “We aim to advance this drug into clinical trials, and our results demonstrate its effectiveness for the first time.”

According to a recent study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, a protein that prepares 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).

Adding evidence to the importance of early development, a new study links neutral maternal behavior toward infants with an epigenetic change in children related to stress response.

Epigenetics are molecular processes independent of DNA that influence gene behavior. In this study, researchers found that neutral or awkward behavior of mothers with their babies at 12 months correlated with an epigenetic change called methylation, or the addition of methane and carbon molecules, on a gene called NR3C1 when the children were 7 years old. This gene has been associated with regulating the body’s response to stress.

“There is evidence of a relationship between the quality of maternal-infant interaction and methylation of this gene though these are small effects in response to a relatively small variation in interaction,” said Elizabeth Holdsworth, a Washington State University biological anthropologist and lead author of the study published in the American Journal of Human Biology.

The iconic X-shaped organization of metaphase chromosomes is frequently presented in textbooks and other media. The drawings explain in captivating manner that the majority of genetic information is stored in chromosomes, which transmit it to the next generation. “These presentations suggest that the chromosome ultrastructure is well-understood. However, this is not the case,” says Dr. Veit Schubert from IPK’s chromosome structure and function research group.

Several models have been proposed to describe the higher-order structure of metaphase chromosomes based on data obtained using a range of molecular and microscopy methods. These models are categorized as helical and non-helical. Helical models assume that the chromatin in each sister chromatid at metaphase is arranged as a coil, whereas non-helical models suggest that chromatin is folded within the chromatids without forming a spiral.

The researchers revived the term “chromonema,” which was used for the first time at the beginning of the 20th century. Now, the IPK and IEB researchers provided a detailed description of its ultrastructure. Different experimental approaches, including chromosome conformation capture sequencing (Hi-C) of isolated mitotic chromosomes, polymer modeling, and microscopic observations of sister chromatid exchanges and oligo-FISH labeled regions at the super-resolution level provided an independent proof for the coiling of the chromonema.