The first CRISPR gene-editing drug, designed to treat blood disorders, could be on the market by 2023. Here’s what it means for the future of drug development.
Category: genetics – Page 259
Central Dogma
The central dogma of molecular biology explains the flow of genetic information, from DNA to RNA, to make a functional product, a protein.
This Video Explains Central Dogma.
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It’s Alive, But Is It Life: Synthetic Biology and the Future of Creation
For decades, biologists have read and edited DNA, the code of life. Revolutionary developments are giving scientists the power to write it. Instead of tinkering with existing life forms, synthetic biologists may be on the verge of writing the DNA of a living organism from scratch. In the next decade, according to some, we may even see the first synthetic human genome. Join a distinguished group of synthetic biologists, geneticists and bioengineers who are edging closer to breathing life into matter.
This program is part of the Big Ideas Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.
Original Program Date: June 4, 2016
MODERATOR: Robert Krulwich.
PARTICIPANTS: George Church, Drew Endy, Tom Knight, Pamela Silver.
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Synthetic Biology and the Future of Creation 00:00.
Participant Intros 3:25
Bioforming and Gene Tailoring
A deep look at some of the truly advanced and surprising options that might become available to us as we improve our skill with genetic engineering, ranging from altering humans to adapting life to live on alien planets or to serve as machines. We will also look at methods for doing genetic engineering, such as DNA printing and CRISPR, as well as consider some of the ethical concerns associated to using this technology.
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Can We Genetically Engineer Humans for Space?
Traveling far distances in space is difficult, but advances in jet propulsion and genetics are making it possible. Trace is joined by Dr. Kiki Sanford to discuss how by altering the genes in our own bodies, we can make ourselves more fit to survive on other planets!
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The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog.
http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog.
First Synthetic Yeast Chromosome Revealed.
http://www.nature.com/news/first-synthetic-yeast-chromosome-revealed-1.14941
“It took geneticist Craig Venter 15 years and US $40 million to synthesize the genome of a bacterial parasite. Today, an academic team made up mostly of undergraduate students reports the next leap in synthetic life: the redesign and production of a fully functional chromosome from the baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.”
Reworking the Human Genome So People Can Colonize Other Planets.
http://phys.org/news/2014-03-reworking-human-genome-people-colonize.html.
“If you haven’t thought about reworking the human genome so people can colonize other planets, don’t worry. Plenty of people are on it.”
Genes and Galaxies.
RNA modifications in mitochondria promote invasive spread of cancer
Mitochondria are the power plants of cells, and they contain their own genetic material and RNA molecules. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have now discovered that certain modifications in mitochondrial RNA boost the invasive spread of cancer cells by supporting protein synthesis in mitochondria. They have established that a specific gene expression signature correlating with high levels of mitochondrial RNA modifications is associated with metastasis and poor prognosis in patients with head and neck cancer. When the researchers blocked the responsible RNA modifying enzyme in cancer cells, the number of metastases was reduced. Certain antibiotics that suppress protein synthesis in mitochondria were also able to prevent the invasive spread of cancer cells in laboratory experiments. The results have now been published in the journal Nature.
Cancer cells in aggressive tumors invade the surrounding tissue in an attempt to form a new tumor in other organs. During this journey, cancer cells have to survive unfavorable conditions such as shortage of oxygen or shortage in nutrients. To overcome these stress factors, cancer cells adapt their energy production accordingly. The molecular mechanisms allowing this flexibility were poorly understood until now. “However, we suspected that this metabolic plasticity must be a key to the successful spread of the cancer cells,” says Michaela Frye; cell biologist at the German Cancer Research Center.
Mitochondria are tiny, membrane-enveloped structures known as the powerhouse of every cell in our body. For energy production, they use the so-called respiratory chain present in the mitochondrial membrane. Because mitochondria contain their own genetic material, they themselves produce key components of the respiratory chain.
Probiotic Bacteria: A Promising Tool in Cancer Prevention and Therapy
Probiotics show a new to battle cancer and other diseases keeping the host body healthy with its anti inflammation abilities.
Gut microbiota is widely considered to be one of the most important components to maintain balanced homeostasis. Looking forward, probiotic bacteria have been shown to play a significant role in immunomodulation and display antitumour properties. Bacterial strains could be responsible for detection and degradation of potential carcinogens and production of short-chain fatty acids, which affect cell death and proliferation and are known as signaling molecules in the immune system. Lactic acid bacteria present in the gut has been shown to have a role in regression of carcinogenesis due to their influence on immunomodulation, which can stand as a proof of interaction between bacterial metabolites and immune and epithelial cells. Probiotic bacteria have the ability to both increase and decrease the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines which play an important role in prevention of carcinogenesis. They are also capable of activating phagocytes in order to eliminate early-stage cancer cells. Application of heat-killed probiotic bacteria coupled with radiation had a positive influence on enhancing immunological recognition of cancer cells. In the absence of active microbiota, murine immunity to carcinogens has been decreased. There are numerous cohort studies showing the correlation between ingestion of dairy products and the risk of colon and colorectal cancer. An idea of using probiotic bacteria as vectors to administer drugs has emerged lately as several papers presenting successful results have been revealed. Within the next few years, probiotic bacteria as well as gut microbiota are likely to become an important component in cancer prevention and treatment.
Cancer is considered as one of the most significant causes of death. The treatment of tumors has received much attention in the last years; however, the number of people suffering neoplastic syndrome is still increasing. Thus, researchers are trying to face this process searching for innovative therapies and prophylaxis. Despite the fact that cancer risk indisputably depends on genetic factors, immunological condition of the organism plays a considerable role in it, that being closely associated with probiotic bacteria and commensal bacterial flora presented mainly in the digestive tract. Probiotic strains, inter alia Bifidobacterium, or Lactobacillus, widely present in commonly consumed fermented milk products, are known to have various beneficial effects on health. To date, there is a plethora of studies investigating the correlation between intestinal microbiota and carcinogenesis which have been evaluated in this article.
Our universe was made by aliens in a lab, theorises Harvard scientist
Ever considered the notion that everything around you was cooked up by aliens in a lab? Theoretical physicist and former chair of Harvard’s astronomy department, Abraham ‘Avi’ Loeb, has proposed a wild – if unsettling – theory that our universe was intentionally created by a more advanced class of lifeform.
In an op-ed for Scientific American, “Was Our Universe Created In A Laboratory?”, Loeb suggested that aliens could have created a ‘baby universe’ using ‘quantum tunneling’, which would explain our universe’s ‘flat geometry’ with zero net energy. If this discovery were proven true, then the universe humans live in would be shown to be “like a biological system that maintains the longevity of its genetic material through multiple generations,” Loeb wrote.
Loeb put forward the idea of a scale of developed civilisations (A, B, etc.) and, due to that fact that on Earth we currently don’t have the ability to reproduce the astrophysical conditions that led to our existence, “we are a low-level technological civilisation, graded class C on the cosmic scale” (essentially: dumb). We would be higher up, he added, if we possessed the ability to recreate the habitable conditions on our planet for when the sun will die. But, due to our tendency to “carelessly destroy the natural habitat” on Earth through climate change, we should really be downgraded to class D.
Monkeypox found to be evolving at a faster rate than expected
A team of researchers at the National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge in Portugal, working with a colleague at Lusófona University, also in Portugal, has found that the monkeypox virus has been evolving at a faster rate than expected. In their paper published in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers describe their genetic study of the virus collected from 15 samples.
Monkeypox is a double-stranded DNA virus from the same genus as smallpox, and it mostly infects people in Africa. Scientist have known of its existence since the 1950s. Despite its name, the virus is more commonly found in rodents than monkeys. Prior research has shown that there are two main varieties of monkeypox: West African and Congo Basin—the former is far less deadly and is the clade that has infected several thousand people outside Africa. Prior research has also shown that viruses like monkeypox typically only mutate once or twice in a given year.
In this new effort, the researchers collected samples from 15 patients and subjected them to genetic analysis to learn more about how quickly the virus is evolving. They found the virus has mutated at a rate six to 12 times as high as was expected. The researchers suggest the sudden accelerated rate of mutation in the virus may be a sign that the virus has developed a new way to infect people—currently, it is believed to move from person to person through close contact with open lesions, through body fluids or by airborne droplets.