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Category: genetics – Page 328

Watch Nanobot Carry Lazy Sperm to Fertilize Living Eggs

A sperm’s task may appear straightforward; after all, all it needs to do is swim to an egg and insert genetic material. However, in some cases, a healthy sperm’s inability to swim may result in infertility, which affects around 7 percent of all males.

This condition is called asthenozoospermia, and there is currently no cure. However, one study conducted in 2016 and published in the journal Nano Letters has set the example for what could be possible in the future: A team of researchers from the Institute for Integrative Nanosciences at IFW Dresden in Germany developed tiny motors that can make sperm swim better as they make their way to an egg, essentially acting as a taxi.

These so-called “spermbots” basically consist of a tiny micromotor, which is basically a spiraling piece of metal that wraps around the sperm’s tail. Serving as an “on-board power supply”, the motor navigates the sperm via a magnetic field, helping the sperm swim to the egg with ease. When the sperm makes contact with the egg for fertilization, the motor slips right off, and the magnetic field doesn’t harm any of the cells involved, making it ideal for usage on living tissue, according to the researchers.

A genetic brain disease reversed after birth

As this is the first report of neuro-inflammation in Kleefstra syndrome, the next step is to find out if it also occurs in the human condition. Shinkai believes the chances are high and says he would not be surprised if other neurological diseases caused by epigenetic dysregulation were also related to abnormal inflammation in the brain.

Researchers at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) in Japan report that Kleefstra syndrome, a genetic disorder that leads to intellectual disability, can be reversed after birth in a mouse model of the disease. Published in the scientific journal iScience, the series of experiments led by Yoichi Shinkai showed that postnatal treatment resulted in improved symptoms, both in the brain and in behavior.

Normally, we get two good copies of most genes, one from each parent. In Kleefstra , one copy of the EHMT1 gene is mutated or missing. This leads to half the normal amount of GLP, a protein whose job is to control genes related to brain development through a process called H3K9 methylation. Without enough GLP, H3K9 methylation is also reduced, and the connections between neurons in the brain do not develop normally. The result is and autistic-like symptoms. “We still don’t know if Kleefstra syndrome is a curable disease after birth or how this epigenetic dysregulation leads to the ,” says Shinkai. “Our studies in have provided new information about what causes the behavioral abnormalities associated with the syndrome and have shown that a cure is a real possibility in the future.”

Reasoning that extra GLP might be an , the researchers performed a series of experiments in mice that were engineered to have only one good copy of the EHMT1 gene. The brains of these mice show characteristics of the human condition, including 40% less GLP and 30% less H3K9 methylation. The mice also display several behaviors seen in humans with Kleefstra syndrome, such as reduced locomotion and greater anxiety. After each experiment, the researchers measured these factors and compared them to normal mice to see if the treatment had been effective.

GSK teams with King’s College to use AI to fight cancer

The pharmaceuticals firm GSK has struck a five-year partnership with King’s College London to use artificial intelligence to develop personalised treatments for cancer by investigating the role played by genetics in the disease.

The tie-up, which involves 10 of the drug maker’s artificial intelligence experts working with 10 oncology specialists from King’s across their labs, will use computing to “play chess with cancer”, working out why only a fifth of patients respond well to immuno-oncology treatments.

Eight Diseases That CRISPR Technology Could Cure

CRISPR technology offers the promise to cure any human genetic disease with gene editing; which one will be the first?

CRISPR-Cas9 was first used as a gene-editing tool in 2012. In just a few years, the technology has exploded in popularity thanks to its promise of making gene editing much faster, cheaper, and easier than ever before.

CRISPR is short for ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.’ The term makes reference to a series of repetitive patterns found in the DNA of bacteria that form the basis of a primitive immune system, defending them from viral invaders by cutting their DNA.

Ancient DNA rewrites early Japanese history —modern day populations have tripartite genetic origin

Ancient DNA extracted from human bones has rewritten early Japanese history by underlining that modern day populations in Japan have a tripartite genetic origin—a finding that refines previously accepted views of a dual genomic ancestry.

Twelve newly sequenced ancient Japanese genomes show that modern day populations do indeed show the genetic signatures of early indigenous Jomon hunter-gatherer-fishers and immigrant Yayoi farmers—but also add a third genetic component that is linked to the Kofun peoples, whose culture spread in Japan between the 3rd and 7th centuries.

TRNA therapies could help restore proteins lost in translation

He explored the possibility of using gene therapy or gene editing—technologies that were dominating headlines for their ability to tackle other rare genetic disorders. But scientists told him those approaches would be difficult to implement for Dravet. Instead, a newfangled idea called transfer RNA (tRNA) therapy seemed like it might be the answer.

Drug Discovery tRNA therapies could help restore proteins lost in translation.

A new class of therapies based on transfer RNA could treat forms of cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, genetic epilepsies, and more by.

Ryan Cross

A paradigm shift in aging research?

This is the video of Harold Katcher’s presentation to the London Futurists. It was a great discussion, be sure to check it out.

#haroldkatcher #antiaging #rejuvenation #futurism

It has been known for some time that young blood plasma can confer beneficial effects on various organs in mice, although the mechanisms and implications remained unclear. A recent breakthrough experiment is attracting more attention to this area of research: rats treated with a blood plasma mixture known as E5 subsequently had their effective biological age measured by epigenetic clocks, involving 593 tissue samples. The result was a halving of the epigenetic ages of blood, heart, and liver tissue, and a lesser reduction (still statistically significant) in the epigenetic age of the hypothalamus. This has been heralded as the single most dramatic age-reversal experiment in mammals to date.

On Saturday 18th September, the lead designer of these experiments, Dr Harold Katcher, joined London Futurists to present his analysis of the findings, his own distinctive theories of aging, and his expectation for future research and applications. He also answered questions about his new book, “The Illusion of Knowledge: The paradigm shift in aging research that shows the way to human rejuvenation”, which is available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Illusion-Knowledge-paradigm-researc…09C7JNB64/

The event was introduced and moderated by David Wood, Chair of London Futurists.

Continue reading “A paradigm shift in aging research?” | >

Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram

Circa 2012.

A bioengineer and geneticist at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have successfully stored 5.5 petabits of data — around 700 terabytes — in a single gram of DNA, smashing the previous DNA data density record by a thousand times.

The work, carried out by George Church and Sri Kosuri, basically treats DNA as just another digital storage device. Instead of binary data being encoded as magnetic regions on a hard drive platter, strands of DNA that store 96 bits are synthesized, with each of the bases (TGAC) representing a binary value (T and G = 1 A and C = 0).

To read the data stored in DNA, you simply sequence it — just as if you were sequencing the human genome — and convert each of the TGAC bases back into binary. To aid with sequencing, each strand of DNA has a 19-bit address block at the start (the red bits in the image below) — so a whole vat of DNA can be sequenced out of order, and then sorted into usable data using the addresses.

Time Until Dementia Symptoms Appear Can Be Estimated via Brain Scan

“You may hit the tipping point when you’re 50; it may happen when you’re 80; it may never happen,” Schindler said. “But once you pass the tipping point, you’re going to accumulate high levels of amyloid that are likely to cause dementia. If we know how much amyloid someone has right now, we can calculate how long ago they hit the tipping point and estimate how much longer it will be until they are likely to develop symptoms.”

Summary: A new algorithm uses neuroimaging data of amyloid levels in the brain and takes into account a person’s age to determine when a person with genetic Alzheimer’s risk factors, and with no signs of cognitive decline, will develop the disease.

Source; WUSTL

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed an approach to estimating when a person who is likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, but has no cognitive symptoms, will start showing signs of Alzheimer’s dementia.

The algorithm, available online in the journal Neurology, uses data from a kind of brain scan known as amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) to gauge brain levels of the key Alzheimer’s protein amyloid beta.

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