This brief examines the conflict-of-interest risks posed by AI agents and calls for imposing a duty of loyalty on developers and deployers.
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Developing a genetic toolkit for manipulating abundant intestinal microbes
Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have developed a set of molecular tools to regulate the activity of specific genes in one of the most common classes of intestinal bacteria. The ability to genetically manipulate these microbes could lead to a better understanding of the role they play in human physiology and disease.
In healthy individuals, species of Clostridia comprise half of the bacteria found in the gut. Many produce metabolites that are likely beneficial for human health and immune regulation. However, some are associated with disease—from botulism and inflammatory intestinal conditions to metabolic disorders such as diabetes or even cancer.
Exactly how Clostridia contribute to disease onset or progression is not well understood. For example, do the bacteria produce a specific toxin or disease-affecting metabolite? Or could changes in their abundance alter other gut bacteria and influence health or disease?
Blocking cellular ‘freecycling’ may slow bone marrow scarring in myelofibrosis
In a new study published in Nature Communications, Boston Children’s Hospital researchers identified a new target responsible for scar formation in the bone marrow of patients with a type of blood cancer known as myelofibrosis. Combining traditional myelofibrosis therapy with drugs that block scar formation may be a more effective treatment for patients with the disease.
“The current gold standard treatment for myelofibrosis targets the symptoms but is not curative,” says Joseph Italiano Jr., Ph.D., principal investigator in the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children’s. “Based on our findings, we believe that if we can delay scarring, it may give people more time and improve lives.”
Gamma-ray signal could be long awaited evidence for WIMPs
Dark matter is known to make up roughly 85% of all mass in the universe, as evidenced by the way galaxies spin and how galaxy clusters are held together under gravity. Yet despite decades of searching, physicists have never managed to detect the elusive substance directly.
In new research published in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Yi-Zhong Fan at the Chinese Academy of Sciences claims to have spotted a strong gamma-ray signal coming from a group of galaxy clusters, which could be among the most compelling evidence yet for a leading dark matter candidate known as WIMPs.
Machine learning method uncovers hidden patterns in DNA methylation
In a study recently published in Nature Communications, researchers from Berlin, Potsdam, and Jena present a new method for analyzing the epigenome. The machine-learning method identifies differentially methylated DNA regions without sample labels—a prerequisite for many existing algorithms. This makes it possible to identify previously hidden biological patterns as well as new subgroups of cells or diseases.
The activity of our genes is not determined by DNA sequence alone. The attachment of small chemical compounds—known as methyl groups—influences which genes are active and which remain silenced. DNA methylation is thus a central component of the epigenome.
Changes to the epigenome play a crucial role in the development of our bodies, influence the aging process and are relevant to numerous diseases, such as cancer. To understand such changes, researchers specifically search for differentially methylated DNA regions (DMRs). However, existing methods usually require samples under investigation to be assigned to known groups—such as healthy or diseased tissue. With complex clinical datasets, however, this information is often unknown.
Stress gene ‘stuck on’ in the brains of people with schizophrenia, study finds
Experts at the University of Sydney have found that a gene involved in regulating the body’s response to stress switches on more easily in the brains of people who live with schizophrenia.
The study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry and carried out in collaboration with researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, looked at the FKBP5 gene and the corresponding FKBP51 protein, which help regulate how strongly the body responds to stress hormones such as cortisol.
Using donated brain tissue, the researchers found that for people with schizophrenia, the chemical tags that normally keep the FKBP5 gene in check had been stripped away. This change was linked to higher activity of the FKBP5 gene, opening up the possibility of developing new treatments that target it.
Simulations reveal asymmetric diffusion of magnetic skyrmions through an off-center gate
Diffusion is a fundamental natural phenomenon that can be observed across a wide range of length and time scales. It plays a key role in many fields, including physics, biology and economics. In particular, asymmetric or directional diffusion of particle systems has attracted growing interest for practical applications, including the development of unconventional artificial intelligence (AI) hardware, where it could enable nonlinear, geometry-controlled information processing.
Magnetic skyrmions are topological spin textures that can behave as particle-like objects with chiral dynamics. Recent reports have shown that even tiny thermal fluctuations can drive effective diffusion of skyrmions in ultrathin magnetic films and layered heterostructures. Some experiments have also revealed a topology-dependent sideways, wall-guided motion known as the Brownian gyromotion of skyrmions when they interact in a confined space.
Magnetic skyrmions can also exhibit exotic dynamic behaviors that cannot be reproduced by common particles. Their diffusive properties have immense potential in novel information-processing applications. However, these properties, especially in structured environments, remain largely unexplored.
Sound waves do double duty, carrying and protecting quantum information
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a promising new way to protect fragile quantum information using nothing but mechanical vibrations—essentially extremely small sound waves. The breakthrough, which comes from the lab of Marko Lončar, Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering, paves a path toward compact, sound-based quantum networks on chips, as well as hybrid quantum systems that combine many different types of quantum bits, or qubits.
The research is published in Nature Physics. Experiments were led by Eliza Cornell, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the Lončar lab and current postdoctoral researcher at Boston University, and Zhujing Xu, a former postdoctoral scholar in Lončar’s group.
Erasable semiconductor is programmed with light
Researchers at Princeton Engineering have created a semiconductor with unique properties: It is just a few molecules thick and can repeatedly change its properties in response to light. This is a step toward building more energy-efficient sensors, optoelectronic devices and computing technologies.
Advances in semiconductors over the past 50 years have allowed engineers to create increasingly smaller semiconductor devices and more efficient computers. But this approach is reaching its physical limits—the semiconductor devices are so tiny that it is challenging to add more devices. Researchers are now creating new materials rather than shrinking existing ones.
“One of the future goals for advancing electronics is not just making materials smaller, but making them adaptable and smarter,” said Jaehoon Ji, a postdoctoral researcher and first author on the July 1 paper describing the research in Science Advances.
Scientists resurrect ancient proteins, offering new antibiotic leads
University of Oregon biologists have resurrected prehistoric proteins up to 160 million years old that carry natural antimicrobial properties. The revived molecules could inspire the design of new treatments for antibiotic-resistant infections, a pressing global health issue.
Described in a paper published in PLOS Biology on Aug. 25, the scientists worked their way up the tree of life, reconstructing peptides—short protein fragments—dating back to the earliest placental mammals, the diverse lineage that includes humans and nearly all mammals alive today. In laboratory tests, the researchers found that some of the extinct peptides were more potent against drug-resistant bacteria than some of their present-day counterparts.
Evolution’s ancient remedies could offer new starting points for scientists designing treatments that supplement or replace antibiotics that no longer work, said Matt Barber, senior author of the paper and evolutionary biologist at the UO College of Arts and Sciences.