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Blog – Page 3112

Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors are a cornerstone of genetic medicine. These hollow virus particles are used to deliver commercial gene therapies like Glybera and Luxturna, as well as many other candidates still in development.

Despite this, the biopharmaceutical industry has yet to find the most effective way of making rAAV vectors at scale. McKinsey analysts recently described vector production as one of the major challenges faced by gene therapy developers. And the situation is only going to get worse as the gene therapy market evolves and begins developing products for larger patient populations.

“With a shift beyond ultra-rare indications, viral-vector manufacturing requires rapid expansion to be able to address various diseases in the commercial space,” the analysts wrote, adding, “The broader application of viral vector-based gene therapies (for example, to more common diseases) requires higher yields and lower cost of goods (COGs).”

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A new artificial intelligence model can predict people’s risk of multiple sclerosis years before diagnosis, potentially enabling quicker treatment, according to research revealed at the 2023 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo. Another breaking study demonstrates how machine learning can help detect lab samples contaminated with intravenous fluids—a finding that could reduce lab errors that delay diagnosis and raise healthcare costs.

Taken together, the results highlight key advances in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve patient care.

AI model harnesses patient data to predict multiple sclerosis risk.

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Room Temperature and Ambient Pressure Superconductor? We shall see. But video is hopeful, currents are practical…

Increase your recognition in the scientific world with short video-casts.

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Kamilla Cziráki, a geophysics student at the Faculty of Science of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), has taken a new approach to researching the navigation systems that can be used on the surface of the moon to plan future journeys.

Working with Professor Gábor Timár, head of the Department of Geophysics and Space Sciences, Cziráki calculated the parameters used in the Earth’s GPS system for the moon using the method of mathematician Fibonacci, who lived 800 years ago. Their findings have been published in the journal Acta Geodaetica et Geophysica.

Now, as humanity prepares to return to the moon after half a century, the focus is on possible methods of lunar navigation. It seems likely that the modern successors to the lunar vehicles of the Apollo missions will now be assisted by some form of satellite navigation, similar to the GPS system on Earth. In the case of Earth, these systems do not take into account the actual shape of our planet, the geoid, not even the surface defined by sea level, but a rotating ellipsoid that best fits the geoid.

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Bubble technology has emerged as a powerful tool for addressing environmental pollution, enhancing water treatment processes, and boosting industrial and agricultural production. Such novel applications of this technology have emerged owing to the unique properties of nanobubbles (NBs)—gas bubbles smaller than 1,000 nanometers (nm) in diameter.

In particular, NBs in water, especially those with diameter less than 200 nm, exhibit low buoyancy, high mass transfer efficiency, high reactivity, and exceptional stability. However, the underlying mechanism behind their stability has remained elusive, with most studies focusing only on the temporal changes in the size and surface charge of NBs and overlooking the changes in their concentration under various conditions.

To address this issue, a team of researchers led by Associate Professor Myoung-Hwan Park from Sahmyook University in South Korea has recently investigated the number and stability of high-concentration NBs in water under various conditions. Their study was published in Applied Water Science.

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Imagine you could take a medicine that prevents the decline that come with age and keeps you healthy. Scientists are trying to find a drug that has these effects. The current most promising anti-ageing drug is Rapamycin, known for its positive effects on life and health span in experimental studies with laboratory animals. To obtain the maximum beneficial effects of the drug, it is often given lifelong. However, even at the low doses used in prevention for age-related decline, negative side effects may occur, and it is always desirable to use the lowest effective dose. A research group at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany, has now shown in laboratory animals that brief exposure to rapamycin has the same positive effects as lifelong treatment opening new doors for a potential application in humans.

Combatting the negative effects of ageing is increasingly becoming the focus of research scientists. Lifestyle changes can improve health of older people, but alone is not sufficient to prevent the ills of older age. Repurposing existing drugs for ‘geroprotection’ is providing an additional weapon in the prevention of age-related decline. The current most promising anti-ageing drug is rapamycin, a cell growth inhibitor and immunosuppressant that is normally used in cancer therapy and after organ transplantations. “At the doses used clinically, rapamycin can have undesirable side-effects, but for the use of the drug in the prevention of age-related decline, these need to be absent or minimal. Therefore, we wanted to find out when and how long we need to give rapamycin in order to achieve the same effects as lifelong treatment”, explains Dr. Paula Juricic, the leading investigator of the study in the department of Prof.

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