The brings you the true stories and experiences from radical remission survivors and the healers and doctors who have helped them overcome a dire prognosis. These episodes are full of stories of hope and inspiration for anyone living with a life-changing diagnosis.
New research at ACR Convergence 2023, the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting, demonstrates that CAR-T cell therapy could lead to sustained suppression of autoantibodies in treatment-resistant lupus while maintaining a robust response to vaccines.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, lupus) is a complex autoimmune disease marked by the production of autoantibodies to nucleic acid DNA and nuclear protein autoantigens and is associated with dysfunctional B cells. It mainly affects women and is more common and severe in people who are Black, Hispanic, or Asian. Lupus can lead to a wide range of systemic problems varying in severity, including skin, kidney, lung, joints, and heart disease and complications during pregnancy.
The disease often requires life-long treatment with immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory drugs, and a considerable number of patients don’t respond to them. One theoretical option for these patients is chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy, which is successfully used to treat refractory blood cancers by destroying malignant cells.
A new study in mice found limited intakes of one particular essential amino acid slowed the impacts of ageing and even lengthened their lifespan.
Scientists are now wondering if these findings could help people improve their longevity and quality of life.
Isoleucine is one of three branched-chain amino acids we use to build proteins in our bodies. It is essential for our survival, but since our cells can’t produce it from scratch, we have to get it from sources like eggs, dairy, soy protein and meats.
Design Cells / iStock.
The tool can correct genetic errors, control gene activity, and potentially treat diseases like cancer. However, its use raises ethical concerns regarding altering human genes and embryos.
Data is the vital force of large AI models, and thus of the industry itself. But it’s also a finite resource — and companies could run out.
Humanity has sent probes to other planets, to their moons, and even into interstellar space, but we have yet to reach another star system.
Now that’s forward thinking but it’ll be a long while. But that’s science!
Nothing escapes black holes, but over the decades researchers have worked out ways to get some energy out of them. Some happen naturally, and some energy can be stolen in clever ways. Now, researchers have worked out novel approaches to use black holes as power sources, suggesting that they can be used as either batteries or nuclear reactors.
The assumption of this study is a Schwarzschild black hole – one that has no electric charge or angular momentum. So, it’s neutral and it doesn’t spin. By dropping charged particles on it, the black holes can be made to have a static electric field – and suddenly, you have the makings of a battery.
The team imagined the black hole in a cavity from which electrical charge can be put in and then extracted in a slow controllable way, and with impressive efficiency. This theoretical black battery could transform up to 25 percent of its mass into electrical energy.
What is the weather like on water-rich exoplanets? This is something a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to shed light on as a team of researchers conducted laboratory experiments to simulate how hazy skies might form on such exoplanets throughout the cosmos. Haze changes the way light reacts to various gases within a planet’s atmosphere, which alters what astronomers detect, as well. This study comes as the number of potential water-rich exoplanets continues to grow and holds the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions necessary for the formation and evolution of water-rich exoplanets, including how life might form and evolve on them, whether on their surfaces or in their atmospheres.
Artist illustration of water-rich exoplanets comprised of hazy atmospheres, which was the focus of this study. (Credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins University)
“The big picture is whether there is life outside the solar system, but trying to answer that kind of question requires really detailed modeling of all different types, specifically in planets with lots of water,” said Dr. Sarah Hörst, who is an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University and a co-author on the study. “This has been a huge challenge because we just don’t have the lab work to do that, so we are trying to use these new lab techniques to get more out of the data that we’re taking in with all these big fancy telescopes.”
GPT-4 for radiology.
As the benefits of AI in healthcare continue to emerge, we investigate GPT-4’s potential in radiology. Learn about research exploring GPT-4’s potential in assisting report structuring, classifying diseases, and generating comprehensive findings summaries:
Researchers report that they have developed a new composite material designed to change behaviors depending on temperature in order to perform specific tasks. These materials are poised to be part of the next generation of autonomous robotics that will interact with the environment.
The new study conducted by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Shelly Zhang and graduate student Weichen Li, in collaboration with professor Tian Chen and graduate student Yue Wang from the University of Houston, uses computer algorithms, two distinct polymers, and 3D printing to reverse engineer a material that expands and contracts in response to temperature change with or without human intervention.
The study findings are reported in the journal Science Advances.
