Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers in Iceland are growing over 100,000 genetically modified barley plants inside a greenhouse for a very unusual purpose: creating lab-grown meat, the BBC reports.

The altered barley gets harvested and purified to extract “growth factor” proteins, which, in turn, can be used to cultivate lab-grown meat — an innovation that could make the lab-grown meat industry rely even less on live animals in the future.

The company behind the greenhouse, ORF Genetics, is growing the biogenetically engineered barley over 22,000 square feet using high-tech hydroponic cultivation methods.

Circa 2019 o.o

The dream of resurrecting species like the woolly mammoth via genetic engineering is old enough that I remember reading articles about it in school 30 years ago. We may never be able to recover enough pristine genetic material from an intact woolly mammoth to make that approach feasible, but scientists working on the remains of the frozen mammoth known as Yuka have taken an incredible step nonetheless, demonstrating that at least some cell functions can remain intact after nearly 30,000 years.

Yuka, found in 2,010 is a juvenile woolly mammoth, considered to be the most intact and well-preserved mammoth ever found. That was critical to the researchers’ efforts — earlier tests in 2009 with a less-well-preserved but younger specimen at 15,000 years old yielded no positive results at all.

Continue reading “Scientists Revive 28,000-Year-Old Woolly Mammoth Cells in Mice” »

Interestingly, the nuclear protein histone H4 was detected, which is reminiscent of the retention of nuclear components in the remains (Fig. 2c). Search against the database of all mammalian species identified other nuclear proteins, such as histones, histone chaperones, proteins implicated in mRNA processing or transport and nuclear membrane proteins (Supplementary Table S2). In addition, we identified two well-characterised epigenetic modifications on histone molecules, methylation of H3K79 and H4K20 (Supplementary Fig. S2A and B), which are involved in transcriptional regulation and genome maintenance^18,19. Our high-sensitive proteomic analysis suggests that the remains retain nuclear components.

These findings motivated us to seek cell nuclei from the muscle remains. Although DAPI-positive and autofluorescence-negative nucleus-like structures were rarely found (Supplementary Figs S3 and S4), we chose the autofluorescence-negative structures for the subsequent live-cell imaging of nuclear-transferred embryos since autofluorescence disturbs accurate tracing of fluorescent-tagged proteins. In total, 88 nucleus-like structures were collected from 273.5 mg mammoth tissue in 5 independent experiments (Supplementary Table S7). Our immunostaining protocol developed for single suspended cells from remains (Supplementary Fig. S5) revealed that these structures were positive for lamin B2 and histone H3, both of which were identified by mass spectrometry (Fig. 3a and Supplementary Fig. S6), suggesting that cell nuclei are, at least partially, sustained even in over a 28,000 year period.

As adults live longer, demand for dental implants continues to grow. However, researchers at Kyoto University and the University of Fuki in Japan may be closer to finding a way to help adults continue to function with natural dentition.

According to the University of Fuki, scientists investigated the effects of monoclonal antibodies for USAG-1. Investigators focused on the USAG-1 gene that interacts with the two mechanisms responsible for tooth development — bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and Wnt signaling. They found administering USAG-1-neutralizing antibodies affects BMP signaling only. The authors reports a single administration was enough to generate a whole tooth in mice and, in subsequent experiments, ferrets as well.

From Decisions in Dentistry. June 2021;7, 11.

Scientists also analysed microbial genetic material from the stool of men with prostate cancer and identified a specific bacterium – Ruminococcus – that may play a major role in the development of resistance. In contrast, the bacterium Prevotella stercorea was associated with favourable clinical outcomes.

Image: Section of a mouse gut. Credit: Kevin Mackenzie, University of Aberdeen.

Common gut bacteria can fuel the growth of prostate cancers and allow them to evade the effects of treatment, a new study finds.

Continue reading “‘Gut bugs’ can drive prostate cancer growth and treatment resistance” »

DNA contains the genetic information that influences everything from eye color to illness and disorder susceptibility. Genes, which are around 20,000 pieces of DNA in the human body, perform various vital tasks in our cells. Despite this, these genes comprise up less than 2% of the genome. The remaining base pairs in the genome are referred to as “non-coding.” They include less well-understood instructions on when and where genes should be created or expressed in the human body.

DeepMind, in collaboration with their Alphabet colleagues at Calico, introduces Enformer, a neural network architecture that accurately predicts gene expression from DNA sequences.

Earlier studies on gene expression used convolutional neural networks as key building blocks. However, their accuracy and usefulness have been hampered by problems in modeling the influence of distal enhancers on gene expression. The proposed new method is based on Basenji2, a program that can predict regulatory activity from DNA sequences of up to 40,000 base pairs.

Based on Transformers, our new architecture advances genetic research by improving the ability to predict how DNA sequence influences gene expression.

When the Human Genome Project succeeded in mapping the DNA sequence of the human genome, the international research community were excited by the opportunity to better understand the genetic instructions that influence human health and development. DNA carries the genetic information that determines everything from eye colour to susceptibility to certain diseases and disorders. The roughly 20,000 sections of DNA in the human body known as genes contain instructions about the amino acid sequence of proteins, which perform numerous essential functions in our cells. Yet these genes make up less than 2% of the genome. The remaining base pairs — which account for 98% of the 3 billion “letters” in the genome — are called “non-coding” and contain less well-understood instructions about when and where genes should be produced or expressed in the human body.

Blowing older methods away, which can take hours and even days.

Global data production is estimated to reach 463 exabytes per day by 2025 — which is the equivalent of 212,765,957 DVDs per day, per the World Economic Forum.

Our existing data-storage systems, which can hold only so many 0s and 1s, and consume huge amounts of energy and space, cannot last us forever, putting us on the cusp of a serious data-storage problem that can only worsen over time. DNA-based data storage may come to the rescue as an alternative to hard drives since our genetic code is millions of times more efficient at storing information than current solutions. Now, in a breakthrough development, researchers at Northwestern University have devised a new method for recording information to DNA that takes minutes rather than hours or days.

Your DNA is in a database.

Your genetic code is probably already in a database, without you ever giving a sample or permission. This video is sponsored by Brilliant. The first 200 people to sign up via https://brilliant.org/veritasium get 20% off a yearly subscription.

Continue reading “Catching Criminals With Their Relative’s DNA” »