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Researchers at NYU College of Dentistry’s Pain Research Center have developed a gene therapy that treats chronic pain by indirectly regulating a specific sodium ion channel, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The innovative therapy, tested in cells and animals, is made possible by the discovery of the precise region where a regulatory protein binds to the NaV1.7 sodium ion channel to control its activity.

“Our study represents a major step forward in understanding the underlying biology of the NaV1.7 sodium ion channel, which can be harnessed to provide relief from chronic pain,” said Rajesh Khanna, director of the NYU Pain Research Center and professor of molecular pathobiology at NYU Dentistry.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft will get closer than ever before to Jupiter’s fiery moon, Io, this weekend.

On Sunday (July 30), the solar-powered mission will come within 13,700 miles (22,000 km) of Io’s volcanic surface. This Jovian satellite is just slightly larger than Earth’s moon, making it the fourth largest moon in our solar system.

Plastic waste is a problem. Most plastics can’t be recycled, and many use finite, polluting petrochemicals as the basic ingredients. But that’s changing. In a study published today in Nature Sustainability, researchers successfully engineered microbes to make biological alternatives for the starting ingredients in an infinitely recyclable plastic known as poly(diketoenamine), or PDK.

The finding comes from collaboration among experts at three facilities at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab): the Molecular Foundry, the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), and the Advanced Light Source.

“This is the first time that bioproducts have been integrated to make a PDK that is predominantly bio-based,” said Brett Helms, staff scientist at the Molecular Foundry who led the project. “And it’s the first time that you see a bio-advantage over using petrochemicals, both with respect to the material’s properties and the cost of producing it at scale.”

Is there such a thing as a longevity mantra? A routine or set of guidelines that can help you extend your lifespan and healthspan – in a nutshell, giving you more life in your years and more years in your life?

A new study involving over 700,000 US veterans reports that people who adopt eight healthy lifestyle habits by middle age can expect to live substantially longer than those with few or none of these habits.

While it’s a list full of the usual suspects, having such a large data set has allowed the research team to put some numbers alongside these pillars of longevity.

British health tech startup Twinn Health recently emerged from stealth, boasting an AI-powered platform that analyzes MRI scans to detect preventable disease “earlier than ever before.” Starting with metabolic disease, the company’s AI platform leverages validated imaging biomarkers to improve diagnosis and treatment decisions.

With age-related frailty and liver disease also on its roadmap, Twinn Health is positioning itself squarely in the domain of longevity and preventive healthcare. The company is supported by WAED, a $500 million venture capital fund backed by Saudi Aramco, which invests in innovative tech-based startups.

Longevity. Technology: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used in healthcare for decades and is widely used in hospitals and clinics for the diagnosis and follow-up of disease. In recent years, AI tools have appeared that help identify the presence of specific conditions within MRI scans, but the technology is not yet widely used in healthcare to support healthspan and longevity improvements. Twinn Health aims to change that, combining MRI and AI to enable the early detection and management of multiple age-related diseases. To learn more, we caught up with founder and CEO Dr Wareed Alenaini.

Part of NCI’s Division of Cancer Biology’s research portfolio, studies supported include the characterization of basic mechanisms relevant to anti-tumor immune responses and hematologic malignancies.

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Arm and its industry partners have announced a new global initiative dubbed the Semiconductor Education Alliance.

The effort includes partners across industry, academia and research in an effort to combat the world’s shortage of semiconductor engineers and other tech talent, Gary Campbell, executive vice president of central engineering at Arm, said in an interview with VentureBeat.

An upcoming resupply mission to the International Space Station will include stem cells destined to be grown into tiny, 3D models of the human brain.

How do we communicate with spacecraft? For decades, satellites have beamed data back to Earth by way of radio waves, with a network of ground-based antennas collecting the incoming information. Now, we’re exploring laser communications, technology that will allow us to receive more data from farther than ever before — faster, too. NASA space communications expert Risha George tells us more. Credit: NASA

NASA is also developing ways to communicate with invisible infrared lasers.

Laser communications offer missions higher data rates than ever before, allowing us to transmit more data at once.