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Blog – Page 11420

Dr Haroldo Silva from SENS talks about ALT cancer in this short film.

As normal cells divide, the ends of their chromosomes (telomeres) progressively shorten until eventually the cells reach senescence or undergo apoptosis. Cancers, which disproportionally kill more individuals in the 65 years or above age group, often overcome this built-in replication limit by expressing the enzyme telomerase.

However, about 10–15% cancers do not use telomerase and at least a major subset of these exhibit hallmarks of Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) activity, including long and heterogeneous telomere lengths, presence of ALT-associated PML nuclear bodies (APBs), and generation of high-levels of C-rich circular telomeric DNA repeats (C-circles). Although there are many telomerase-based anti-cancer therapies in clinical development at the moment, research on ALT has not produced any promising therapies so far. This lag is due in part to a lack of assays that are reliable and amenable to high-content/high-throughput (HTS) screens.

Continue reading “Uncovering the genetic basis of ALT (Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres) — Harold Silva” | >

Time people rethought outdated ideas about biology and accepted that development and aging are not one way processess and they are amenable to intervention.

Scientists have announced they can now reverse the menopause in what is thought to be a major scientific breakthrough.

Trials claim to have ‘rejuvenated’ women’s ovaries using a blood treatment normally used to help wounds heal faster and have reversed menstrual cessation in multiple women, including 40-year-old woman who underwent the menopause five years ago.

The research, undertaken by scientists in Athens, has been presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology’s annual meeting in Finland, The New Scientist reports.

Continue reading “Menopause reversed as scientists successfully ‘rejuvenate women’s ovaries’” | >

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises has demonstrated delivery of hot pizzas by drone in Auckland, New Zealand.

The company has a long history of embracing high-tech concepts. Last year, they tested out a four-wheeled, driverless pizza delivery vehicle. And in 2012, Domino’s launched a casual build-a-pizza game that also let players order the pizza they built digitally for real life delivery.

The company also uses e-bikes and electric scooters for delivery. In a press statement, Domino’s Group CEO and Managing Director Don Meij said:

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Einstein’s theory of special relativity establishes the cosmic speed limit, which is the speed of light. However, some things in our universe don’t really follow this rule to the letter…

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A research team led by a Heriot-Watt scientist has shown that the universe is even weirder than had previously been thought.

In 2015 the universe was officially proven to be weird. After many decades of research, a series of experiments showed that distant, entangled objects can seemingly interact with each other through what Albert Einstein famously dismissed as “Spooky action at a distance”.

A new experiment by an international team led by Heriot-Watt’s Dr Alessandro Fedrizzi has now found that the universe is even weirder than that: entangled objects do not cause each other to behave the way they do.

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“Liquid Metals to “Soft-Wire” Elastic Electronics”

A few years ago, some friends shared with me an amazing experiment of theirs involving liquid/ fluid base circuitry. Definitely is amazing; and is going to be amazing in where we are taking this type of technology along with synthetic biology.

The shape-shifting metals behind the T-1000 android assassin in the sci-fi movie Terminator 2 may not remain science fiction for long with the development of self-propelling liquid metals that could lead to the replacement of solid state circuits by elastic electronics.

Modern electronics are mainly based on circuits that use solid state components with fixed metallic tracks. However, researchers are trying to create soft circuits that act more like live cells, moving around autonomously and communicating with each other to form new circuits rather than being stuck in a predefined configuration.

Continue reading “Liquid Metals to “Soft-Wire” Elastic Electronics” | >

When we go hungry, we have the ability to ignore the urge to eat such that we can carry out the task at hand. It has long been known that the brain is involved in such decisions. But how the brain coordinates the response to nutritional stress so that the body can function normally is not understood very well. Now, researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, have discovered a brain circuit that allows fruit flies to take a major .

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Back in April, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner pledged US$100 million toward a crazy plan to visit another star system.

The mission — Breakthrough Starshot — aims to get this done by propelling teeny, tiny spaceships to 20 percent the speed of light with powerful lasers.

Milner and famed physicist Stephen Hawking initially said their destination would be Alpha Centauri: a star system located some 4.37 light-years (25.7 trillion miles) away from Earth.

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