Researchers at Stanford Medicine have shown they can measure thousands of molecules — some of which are signals of health — from a single drop of blood.
The new approach combines a microsampling device — a tool used to self-administer a finger prick — with “multi-omics” technologies, which simultaneously analyze a vast array of proteins, fats, by-products of metabolism and inflammatory markers.
“Even more importantly, we’ve shown you can collect the blood drop at home and mail it into the lab,” said Michael Snyder, PhD, director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine and senior author on the research, which was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering on Jan. 19.
Year 2014 Essentially this could scan blood very quickly compared to older outdated methods with mass spectrometry.
Rapid identification of the causative microorganism is important for appropriate antimicrobial therapy of bloodstream infections. Bacteria from positive blood culture (BC) bottles are not readily available for identification by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization—time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Lysis and centrifugation procedures suggested for direct MALDI-TOF MS from positive BCs without previous culture are associated with additional hands-on processing time and costs. Here, we describe an alternative approach applying MALDI-TOF MS from bacterial cultures incubated very briefly on solid medium. After plating of positive BC broth on Columbia blood agar (n = 165), MALDI-TOF MS was performed after 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 and (for control) 24 h of incubation until reliable identification to the species level was achieved (score ≥2.0). Mean incubation time needed to achieve species-level identification was 5.9 and 2.0 h for Gram-positive aerobic cocci (GPC, n = 86) and Gram-negative aerobic rods (GNR, n = 42), respectively. Short agar cultures with incubation times ≤2, ≤4, ≤6, ≤8 and ≤12 h yielded species identification in 1.2%, 18.6%, 64.0%, 96.5%, 98.8% of GPC, and in 76.2%, 95.2%, 97.6%, 97.6%, 97.6% of GNR, respectively. Control species identification at 24 h was achieved in 100% of GPC and 97.6% of GNR. Ethanol/formic acid protein extraction performed for an additional 34 GPC isolates cultivated from positive BCs showed further reduction in time to species identification (3.1 h). MALDI-TOF MS using biomass subsequent to very short-term incubation on solid medium allows very early and reliable bacterial identification from positive BCs without additional time and cost expenditure.
The Kardashev scale measures a society’s technical development based on its capacity to capture energy. In 1964, the Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed this system of measurement. The imagined scale of energy consumption is universal and includes the entire universe. Other proposals have been put forward for updating the scale since 1964, including additional power levels and criteria beyond just power itself. In a study presented at the Byurakan conference, a science gathering whose aim was discussing the Soviet Union’s space listening program for radio astronomy, Kardashev initially proposed the concept of his scale. Subscribing to our YouTube channel will provide you access to exclusive content regarding extraterrestrial civilization. Your participation in the form of shares, likes, and comments is greatly appreciated. Please don’t be shy about chiming in with your thoughts and inquiries; we welcome them all.
Mycoplasma pneumoniae are tiny bacteria typically known to cause lung infections. But now, a group of scientists have turned them into double agents. Genetically engineered Mycoplasma helped break down biofilms of another pathogenic microbe, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, in a mouse model of ventilator-associated pneumonia and on tube samples taken from human patients, the team reported January 19 in Nature Biotechnology. It is one of the first times that scientists have used live bacteria to treat a lung disease, and is the first therapeutic use of Mycoplasma.
“This approach is really powerful,” says Dave Hava, a microbiologist who wasn’t involved in the research, but who works at a company called Synlogic that develops live bacteria therapeutics for gut issues. “It offers the chance to target diseases and mechanisms that you can’t do with conventional therapies.”
From the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer to the return to Earth of an asteroid explorer to India’s first India’s private space launch, 2023 is set to be as busy a space exploration year as 2022. Here’s a preview.
Ever since the invention of computers in the 1940s, machines matching general human intelligence have been greatly anticipated. In other words, a machine that possesses common sense and an effective ability to learn, reason, and plan to meet complex information-processing challenges across a wide range of natural as well as abstract domains, would qualify as having a human-level machine intelligence. Currently, our machines are far inferior to humans in general intelligence. However, according to philosopher Nick Bostrom at the University of Oxford, there are several pathways that could lead to human-level intelligence in machines such as whole brain emulation, biological cognition, artificial intelligence, human-machine interfaces, as well as networks and organizations. Once this happens, it would only be a matter of time until superhuman-level machine intelligence, or simply, superintelligence is unlocked. But what exactly do we mean by ‘superintelligence’? And are there different forms of superintelligence that our A.I.s can attain in the future? Let’s take a look at what Nick Bostrom has to say in this matter!
In his book, ‘Superintelligence’ Nick Bostrom defines the term ‘superintelligence’ “to refer to intellects that greatly outperform the best current human minds across many very general cognitive domains.” So, a super-intelligent intellect, would in principle, have the capacity to completely surpass the best human minds in practically every field, including science, philosophy, arts, general wisdom, and even social skills.
China building Bio Weapon that can target people based on race. China has been amassing a disturbing amount of genetic data from the rest of the world, and it’s been doing it for something nightmarish.
◘ Rob Reid — Why the Future is the Good Kind of Scary.
Biological and chemical weapons have the potential to pose a national security threat to the U.S. that the country is not equipped to handle, a panel of lawmakers and a military leader told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum.
Part of one of the inscriptions found at Kom Ombo, a temple in southern Egypt. The image at the top of the inscription appears to show the king Seti I with the gods Horus and Sobek. Part of one of the inscriptions found at Kom Ombo, a temple in southern Egypt. The image at the top of the inscription appears to show the king Seti I with the gods Horus and Sobek. (Image credit: Egyptian Antiquities Ministry)A giant stone engraving that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle, found in a temple in southern Egypt, may reveal new information about a pharaoh named Seti I, who launched a series of military campaigns in North Africa and the Middle East after he became pharaoh in about 1,289 or 1,288 B.C., several Egyptologists told Live Science.
The engraving has both drawings and hieroglyphs on it; the engraving mentions an event that happened during the reign of Horemheb, an elite general in King Tut’s army who eventually became a pharaoh.
Archaeologists with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities discovered the engraving while conducting a groundwater-lowering project in Aswan; inside Kom Ombo, a temple dedicated to the god Horus and a crocodile-headed god named Sobek. The temple dates back 2,300 years; the engraving may have originally been in an earlier temple, now lost, at Kom Ombo that was located on the same spot as the later temple. [The 25 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth].
