Denisovan DNA lives on in some humans today because, once our Homo sapien ancestors encountered the Denisovans, they had sex with them and gave birth to babies — something geneticists call admixture. By analyzing current-day genetic data, we can look back into human history.
Geneticists have found that a Philippine ethnic group known as the Ayta Magbukon has the highest level of Denisovan ancestry in the world.
I am pleased to announce that my lead-author review paper has been published in ACS Nano! If you are interested in learning about the convergence of synthetic biology and adenoviral gene therapy, I encourage you to check out my paper.
If you cannot access the full text, I have also posted a local copy at the following link: https://logancollinsblog.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/synthet…s-2021.pdf.
#ACS #ACSNano #SyntheticBiology #GeneTherapy #Biology #Biotech #Science #Biotechnology #Nanotechnology #Adenovirus #Engineering #Virology
Synthetic biology centers on the design and modular assembly of biological parts so as to construct artificial biological systems. Over the past decade, synthetic biology has blossomed into a highly productive field, yielding advances in diverse areas such as neuroscience, cell-based therapies, and chemical manufacturing. Similarly, the field of gene therapy has made enormous strides both in proof-of-concept studies and in the clinical setting. One viral vector of increasing interest for gene therapy is the adenovirus (Ad). A major part of the Ad’s increasing momentum comes from synthetic biology approaches to Ad engineering. Convergence of gene therapy and synthetic biology has enhanced Ad vectors by mitigating Ad toxicity in vivo, providing precise Ad tropisms, and incorporating genetic circuits to make smart therapies which adapt to environmental stimuli. Synthetic biology engineering of Ad vectors may lead to superior gene delivery and editing platforms which could find applications in a wide range of therapeutic contexts.
Many drugs show promising results in laboratory research but eventually fail clinical trials. We hypothesize that one main reason for this translational gap is that current cancer models are inadequate. Most models lack the tumor-stroma interactions, which are essential for proper representation of cancer complexed biology. Therefore, we recapitulated the tumor heterogenic microenvironment by creating fibrin glioblastoma bioink consisting of patient-derived glioblastoma cells, astrocytes, and microglia. In addition, perfusable blood vessels were created using a sacrificial bioink coated with brain pericytes and endothelial cells. We observed similar growth curves, drug response, and genetic signature of glioblastoma cells grown in our 3D-bioink platform and in orthotopic cancer mouse models as opposed to 2D culture on rigid plastic plates. Our 3D-bioprinted model could be the basis for potentially replacing cell cultures and animal models as a powerful platform for rapid, reproducible, and robust target discovery; personalized therapy screening; and drug development.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. It is estimated that around 30 to 40% of patients with cancer are being treated with ineffective drugs ; therefore, preclinical drug screening platforms attempt to overcome this challenge. Several approaches, such as whole-exome or RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), aim to identify druggable, known mutations or overexpressed genes that may be exploited as a therapeutic target for personalized therapy. More advanced approaches offer to assess the efficacy of a drug or combinations of drugs in patient-derived tumor xenograft models or in vitro three-dimensional (3D) organoids. Unfortunately, most of the existing methods face unmet challenges, which limit their efficacy. For instance, cells can become quiescent or acquire somatic mutations while growing many generations on plastic under the influence of static mechanical forces and in the absence of functional vasculature.
COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and existing gene therapies, including those built with the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool, are delivered into cells with viral vectors or lipid nanoparticles. A research team led by CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang, Ph.D., of the Broad Institute has developed a new mRNA delivery system that harnesses a human protein.
The system, dubbed SEND, leverages the ability of a human protein called PEG10 to bind to its own mRNA and form a protective capsule around it. In a new study published in Science, Zhang and colleagues engineered PEG10 to take on RNA cargoes of their choice and successfully delivered the system to mouse and human cells.
The findings support SEND as an efficient delivery platform for RNA-based gene therapies that can be repeatedly dosed, the researchers suggested. Because SEND uses a protein that’s produced naturally in the body, it may not trigger immune responses that can render gene therapies ineffective, the team said.
This study illustrates how complex the relationship between genes and the environment is. Although our study uses genetic methods, it provides strong evidence that, as well as genetics, the environment really matters when we talk about education.
A child’s educational success depends on the genes that they haven’t inherited from their parents, as well as the genes they have, according to a new study led by UCL researchers.
Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the study confirms that genes a person inherits directly are most likely to contribute to their achievements in education. But parent genes that aren’t directly inherited, yet have still shaped parents’ own education levels and subsequently influenced the lifestyle and family environment they provide for their children, are also important and can affect how well a person does at school and beyond.
The study, a systematic review and meta-analysis of prior evidence of genetic impacts on educational outcomes, is published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
If you’ve ever seen a petunia with artfully variegated petals, then you’ve seen transposons at work. The flower’s showy color patterns are due to transposable elements, or DNA sequences that can move locations within a genome. Yet when it comes to transposons’ effects on humans, the results might not be as lovely or desirable.
As researchers learn more about these so-called mobile genetic elements, they’ve found increasing evidence that transposons influence and even promote aging and age-related diseases like cancer as well as neurogenerative and autoimmune disorders, says John Sedivy, a professor of biology and director of the Center on the Biology of Aging at Brown. Sedivy is the corresponding author of a new review article in Nature that discusses the latest thinking and research around transposons.
“Let’s put it this way: These things can be pretty dangerous,” said Sedivy. “If they are uncontrolled, and there are many examples of that, transposons can have profound consequences on most forms of life that we know of.”
The Conboys are looking at human trials soon but not with E5. it will be interesting to see how their trial compares to this E5 dog trial.
In this video Dr. Fahy shares his opinion on some of the up and coming anti-aging therapies, including NAD boosters, Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers and senolytics.
Intervene Immune website:
Immortal bacteria genetic mechanisms could be used in crispr to make humans truly Immortal: 3.
Researchers successfully resuscitated bacteria from the South Pacific Gyre that were buried under marine snow for 100 million years.
But one idea that hasn’t gotten enough attention from the AI community is how the brain creates itself, argues Peter Robin Hiesinger, Professor of Neurobiology at the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin).
In his book The Self-Assembling Brain, Hiesinger suggests that instead of looking at the brain from an endpoint perspective, we should study how information encoded in the genome is transformed to become the brain as we grow. This line of study might help discover new ideas and directions of research for the AI community.
The Self-Assembling Brain is organized as a series of seminar presentations interspersed with discussions between a robotics engineer, a neuroscientist, a geneticist, and an AI researcher. The thought-provoking conversations help to understand the views and the holes of each field on topics related to the mind, the brain, intelligence, and AI.
What’s confusing is that some of the modifications we’re now considering could have been achieved years ago through traditional methods, so our views depend on what we think about the safety of new editing technologies, but also how desperate we are to address environmental degradation.
A process that began centuries ago with selective breeding has developed into genetic modification. We explore the consequences of these controversial tools.
