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Category: genetics – Page 232

UM Medicine Faculty-Scientists and Clinicians Perform Second Historic Transplant of Pig Heart into Patient with End-Stage Cardiovascular Disease

A 58-year-old patient with terminal heart disease became the second patient in the world to receive a historic transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart on September 20. He is recovering and communicating with his loved ones. This is only the second time in the world that a genetically modified pig heart has been transplanted into a living patient. Both historic surgeries were performed by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) faculty at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC).

The first historic surgery, performed in January, 2022, was conducted on David Bennett by University of Maryland Medicine surgeons (comprising UMSOM and UMMC), who are recognized as the… More.

After world’s first successful transplant in 2022, also performed at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), this groundbreaking transplant team per.

Albumin, CRP, and Creatinine: Better Markers Of Longevity Than Lipoproteins And Glycemic Status

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Scientists regenerate neurons that restore walking in mice after paralysis from spinal cord injury

In a new study in mice, a team of researchers from UCLA, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Harvard University have uncovered a crucial component for restoring functional activity after spinal cord injury. The neuroscientists have shown that re-growing specific neurons back to their natural target regions led to recovery, while random regrowth was not effective.

In a 2018 study published in Nature, the team identified a treatment approach that triggers axons —the tiny fibers that link and enable them to communicate—to regrow after spinal cord in rodents. But even as that approach successfully led to the of across severe spinal cord lesions, achieving functional recovery remained a significant challenge.

In a new study, published in Science, the team aimed to determine whether directing the regeneration of axons from specific neuronal subpopulations to their natural target regions could lead to meaningful functional restoration after spinal cord injury in . They first used advanced genetic analysis to identify nerve cell groups that enable walking improvement after a partial spinal cord injury.

Split gene-editing tool offers greater precision

To make a gene-editing tool more precise and easier to control, Rice University engineers split it into two pieces that only come back together when a third small molecule is added.

Researchers in the lab of chemical and biomolecular engineer Xue Sherry Gao created a CRISPR-based gene editor designed to target adenine ⎯ one of the four main DNA building blocks ⎯ that remains inactive when disassembled but kicks into gear once the binding molecule is added.

Compared to the intact original, the split editor is more precise and stays active for a narrower window of time, which is important for avoiding off-target edits. Moreover, the activating small molecule used to bind the two pieces of the tool together is already being used as an anticancer and immunosuppressive drug.

New gene-editing tool reduces unintended mutations by more than 70%

Still seems unsafe to me until its 100% error free, but step in correct direction at least.

Researchers have found that splitting the gene editor used in traditional CRISPR technology creates a more precise tool that can be switched on and off, with significantly less chance of causing unintended genome mutations. They say their novel tool can potentially correct around half of the mutations that cause disease.

CRISPR is one of those scientific terms that has made it into the everyday lexicon. Arguably one of the biggest discoveries of the 21st century, the gene-editing tool has revolutionized research and the treatment of genetic and non-genetic diseases. But the primary risk associated with CRISPR technology is ‘off-target edits,’ namely unexpected, unwanted, or even adverse alterations at locations in the genome other than the targeted site.

Now, researchers at Rice University have developed a new CRISPR-based gene-editing tool that’s more precise and significantly reduces the likelihood of off-target edits occurring.

AlphaFold tool pinpoints protein mutations that cause disease

Many of the genetic mutations that directly cause a condition, such as those responsible for cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell disease, tend to change the amino acid sequence of the protein that they encode. But researchers have observed only a few million of these single-letter ‘missense mutations’. Of the more than 70 million such mutations that can occur in the human genome, only a sliver have been linked conclusively to disease, and most seem to have no ill effect on health.

So when researchers and doctors find a missense mutation that they’ve never seen before, it can be difficult to know what to make of it. To help interpret such ‘variants of unknown significance’, researchers have developed dozens of computational tools that can predict whether a variant is likely to cause disease. AlphaMissense incorporates existing approaches to the problem, which are increasingly being addressed with machine learning.

Mutations in 11 genes associated with aggressive prostate cancer identified in new research

An international research team led by scientists in the Center for Genetic Epidemiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center has singled out mutations in 11 genes that are associated with aggressive forms of prostate cancer.

These findings come from the largest-scale prostate cancer study ever exploring the exome—that is, the key sections of the genetic code that contain the instructions to make proteins. The scientists analyzed samples from about 17,500 .

Today, oncologists customize care for certain individuals with with help from genetic tests. The results can inform treatment, as one class of targeted therapies has proved effective against some inherited prostate cancers. Test findings also can lead to genetic screening among patients’ family members, so they have the chance to take measures that reduce risk and to work with their doctors to be more vigilant in early detection.

Scientists Discover That the Genes for Learning and Memory Are 650 Million Years Old

A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Leicester has determined that genes responsible for learning, memory, aggression, and other complex behaviors emerged approximately 650 million years ago.

The research spearheaded by Dr. Roberto Feuda, of the Neurogenetic group within the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Leicester and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), has recently been published in the journal Nature Communications.

<em>Nature Communications</em> is a peer-reviewed, open-access, multidisciplinary, scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. It covers the natural sciences, including physics, biology, chemistry, medicine, and earth sciences. It began publishing in 2010 and has editorial offices in London, Berlin, New York City, and Shanghai.

Google DeepMind’s new AI tool can predict genetic diseases

DeepMind has released a catalog of 71 million possible variants that can cause diseases.

Genetic mutations are changes to our DNA sequence. This happens when cells make copies of themselves during cell division. Mutation is the ultimate source of human genetic variation and has evolutionary and disease genetics implications. A mutation affecting our genes might give birth to a genetic disorder. But just because you have a mutation doesn’t mean it will be a genetic disorder.

That is why researchers at DeepMind, the artificial intelligence arm of Google, have announced that they have trained a machine learning model called AlphaMissense to classify which DNA variations in our genomes are likely to cause disease.

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