Remember all those low rate scifi horror movies with big snakes, let’s see if the bookie will take bet on when we have a first big one (on the run from the facility)
Scientists used CRISPR editing to make the world’s first genetically modified snakes, giving new insight into how the reptiles develop their patterned scales.
Cells in the human body chat with each other all the time. One major way they communicate is by releasing tiny spheres called exosomes. These carry fats, proteins, and genetic material that help regulate everything from pregnancy and immune responses to heart health and kidney function.
Now, a new Columbia University study in Nature Nanotechnology demonstrated that these “nanobubbles” can deliver potent immunotherapy directly to tough-to-treat lung cancer tumors via inhalation.
“Exosomes work like text messages between cells, sending and receiving information,” said lead researcher Ke Cheng, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia. “The significance of this study is that exosomes can bring mRNA-based treatment to lung cancer cells locally, unlike systemic chemotherapy that can have side effects throughout the body. And inhalation is totally noninvasive. You don’t need a nurse to use an IV needle to pierce your skin.”
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Genetic analysis of 50,000-year-old Neanderthal skeletons has uncovered the remnants of three viruses related to modern human pathogens, and the researchers think they could be recreated.
Scientists have recently discovered thousands of active RNA molecules that can control the human body.
By Philip Ball
Thomas Gingeras did not intend to upend basic ideas about how the human body works. In 2012 the geneticist, now at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York State, was one of a few hundred colleagues who were simply trying to put together a compendium of human DNA functions. Their project was called ENCODE, for the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements. About a decade earlier almost all of the three billion DNA building blocks that make up the human genome had been identified. Gingeras and the other ENCODE scientists were trying to figure out what all that DNA did.
In a new study recently published by Science Advances, Michigan State University researchers reveal an unexpected genetic revelation about the sugars found in “tomato tar,” shedding light on plant defense mechanisms and their potential applications in pest control.
Tomato tar, a familiar nuisance of avid gardeners, is the sticky, gold-black substance that clings to hands after touching the plant. It turns out that the characteristic stickiness of the substance serves an important purpose. It’s made of a type of sugar called acylsugar that acts as a natural flypaper for would-be pests. “Plants have evolved to make so many amazing poisons and other biologically active compounds,” said Michigan State researcher Robert Last, leader of the study. The Last lab specializes in acylsugars and the tiny, hair-like structures where they’re produced and stored, known as trichomes.
In a surprising discovery, researchers have found acylsugars, once thought to be found exclusively in trichomes, in tomato roots as well. This finding is a genetic enigma that raises as many questions as it does insights.
Integrating human pluripotent stem cell models with population genetics and cellular genomics can help elucidate functional mechanisms underlying complex disease risk loci and uncover relationships between common genetic variation and pharmacotherapeutic phenotypes.
Posted in biotech/medical, genetics | 1 Comment on Papua New Guineans, genetically isolated for 50,000 years, carry Denisovan genes that help their immune system, study suggests
Genes inherited from Denisovans, extinct human relatives, may help Papua New Guineans in the lowlands fight off infection, while mutations to red blood cells may help highlanders live at altitude.
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The brain is one of the most complex entities in biology. For thousands of years, humans have wondered how the human brain works, but only in the past few years has technology evolved so that scientists can actually answer some of the many questions we have. What are the causes of brain disorders? How do our brains develop? How does the brain heal after a head injury? While we still have a long way to go before we can understand the many facets of the human brain, one technology – CRISPR – has allowed us to start answering these questions on a genetic level.
What is CRISPR?
