And it took less than a full workday. Stanford Medicine scientists and their collaborators have engineered a new genome sequencing technique that can diagnose rare genetic diseases in an average of eight hours. This is a record-breaking time frame that is leap and bounds ahead of other current advanced technologies.
Gene sequencing is crucial to advancing science! Check out why cutting time and cost is key.
Circa 2019
The race to engineer the next-generation banana is on. The Colombian government confirmed last month that a banana-killing fungus has invaded the Americas — the source of much of the world’s banana supply. The invasion has given new urgency to efforts to create fruit that can withstand the scourge.
Scientists are using a mix of approaches to save the banana. A team in Australia has inserted a gene from wild bananas into the top commercial variety — known as the Cavendish — and are currently testing these modified bananas in field trials. Researchers are also turning to the powerful, precise gene-editing tool CRISPR to boost the Cavendish’s resilience against the fungus, known as Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4).
Breeding TR4 resistance into the Cavendish using conventional methods isn’t possible because the variety is sterile and propagated by cloning. So the only way to save the Cavendish may be to tweak its genome, says Randy Ploetz, a plant pathologist at the University of Florida in Homestead. The variety accounts for 99% of global banana shipments.
😃 circa 2017.
George Church and colleagues use gene drive to target fungal pathogen resistance.
Could one of Earth’s most intelligent species be an alien, ‘seeded’ on the planet by an interstellar genetic code? Scientists speculate that the clue might be found in the ancient precursor to life: RNA. Image top of page: Shutterstock License Related Articles Octopus & the Origin of Consciousness (Planet Earth Report) Unfathomable […].
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David Sinclair is a geneticist at Harvard and author of Lifespan.
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Church points to factors that helped make such a success of three of the top COVID-19 vaccine technologies. For one thing, they all used gene therapy technologies, and each was a new method relative to the past and to each other. For instance, the AstraZeneca vaccine was based on an adenovirus capsid containing double-stranded DNA as opposed to an adeno-associated virus (AAV) of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine, while the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines were based on single-stranded mRNA inside lipid nanoparticles.
“Implementation science is the unsung handmaiden of biomedical discovery!”
Secondly, each of them was approved by the FDA 10 times faster than the vast majority of therapeutic products, and finally, the cost per vaccine has been as low as $2 per dose for the United Nations’ COVAX global access program. That’s about a million times cheaper than Zolgensma, he says, referring to the AAV gene therapy medication used to treat spinal muscular atrophy. So since “any one of these could spark a revolution,” according to Church, imagine what could happen in the next 12 months if all four factors pertain again?
After only 23 minutes, he could even pee again!
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham transplanted kidneys derived from genetically modified pigs into a brain-dead person last year as part of human preclinical trials, Science Daily reported.
Organ transplant from another species recently made big news, a heart from a genetically modified pig was transplanted into a human whose heart condition left with no other option. While the transplant was authorized under compassionate grounds by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the idea is catching up with the provider of the organ, Revivicor, already having completed two such trials in dead patients.
As Science Daily explains, genetically modified kidneys have been extensively tested in non-human primate recipients but testing them in humans before clinical trials can also provide important information about the safety and efficacy of the transplanted organs.
Full Story:
The shortage of kidneys is acute and calls for a radical solution to save human lives. Genetically modified pig kidneys could be the answer.
The latest episode of the Huberman Lab Podcast is all about the aging process and how to slow, halt or reverse it. My guest is Dr. David Sinclair from Harvard Medical School.
We discuss:
• Epigenetics.
• Fasting, breaking fasts.
• Nutrition, artificial sweeteners.
• How puberty impacts aging.
• Resveratrol, caffeine, electrolytes.
• NAD, NMN, Metformin, Berberine.
• Specific supplementation protocols.
Genetically modified crops have a bad rep. How could something so unnatural be good for us?
Well, we finally get to hear from the plants themselves. New evidence shows that plants have been genetically modifying themselves — and the process, called lateral gene transfer, could lead to new plants that are resilient to climate change.
The research: We all know that genes are transferred from parent to offspring. The same is true for all species, including plants. Some bacteria can swap genes with each other, but more complex life (usually) stays in its lane.
The idea that our genes are our fate” is dead. Exciting new discoveries in the field of epigenetics have proven that our lifestyle and environment can turn off and on many of the genes that control our health and wellbeing. Simple things like where we live, what we eat, pollution, stress, and exercise all impact which genes are silenced and expressed throughout our lives.
Research has shown that that the current dramatic rise in obesity, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s all have epigenetic mechanisms at play. Not only that but many epigenetic changes are actually passed to future generations: your grandmother’s dietary deficits may have caused your diabetes. Your father’s smoking may have turned on your marker for obesity or ADHD. Three generations later the descendants of holocaust survivors are still suffering stress disorders.
The recognition that environment, not genetics, is the primary driver of human health and disease carries with it a strong message of personal empowerment and responsibility. We are no longer powerless in the high stakes game of our own health. We can now play an active role in our genetic destiny.
Decoding Life: The Epigenetics Revolution is a one-hour documentary that uncovers the latest findings in the game-changing field of epigenetics. We meet the world’s top epigenetic experts, uncover the latest research into how epigenetics can be used to treat some of society’s most dire health crises such as cancer, heart disease, obesity, and dementia.
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