Lifeboat Foundation

This study presents a discovery in the fight against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by identifying the protein Schlafen 11 (SLFN11) as a key factor influencing the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Through comprehensive analysis using humanized orthotopic HCC mouse models and in vitro co-culture systems, the research unveils how SLFN11’s deficiency in tumor cells leads to an increase in C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) secretion. This phenomenon promotes the infiltration of immunosuppressive macrophages and leads to immune evasion. The study also showcases the therapeutic potential of blocking CCL2/CCR2 signaling to enhance the efficacy of ICIs in patients with low SLFN11 expression. These findings pave the way for future research to explore additional therapeutic targets within the immune landscape of HCC, offering hope for more effective treatments and improved patient outcomes.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with advanced stages showing dismal survival rates due to limited treatment efficacy. The efforts to improve the situation have focused on immunotherapies, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), though their success varies significantly among individuals due to the complex interplay of tumor growth and immune evasion within the tumor microenvironment (TME). Previous studies have hinted at the role of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and chemokines like CCL2 in the functional remodeling of TAMs. However, a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms driving immune evasion and therapy resistance in HCC has been lacking. This research proposes a solution by identifying SLFN11’s role in modulating the immune landscape of HCC, specifically its influence on macrophage polarization and CCL2 signaling. The outcome offers new avenues for enhancing ICI therapy effectiveness.

Continue reading “Liver Cancer: How Tackling a Protein Could Boost Immunotherapy Success” »

A global research team led by Texas Engineers has developed a way to blast the molecules in plastics and other materials with a laser to break them down into their smallest parts for future reuse.

Purdue University material engineers have created a patent-pending process to develop ultrahigh-strength aluminum alloys that are suitable for additive manufacturing because of their plastic deformability.

Haiyan Wang and Xinghang Zhang lead a team that has introduced transition metals cobalt, iron, nickel and titanium into aluminum via nanoscale, laminated, deformable intermetallics. Wang is the Basil S. Turner Professor of Engineering and Zhang is a professor in Purdue’s School of Materials Engineering. Anyu Shang, a materials engineering graduate student, completes the team.

“Our work shows that the proper introduction of heterogenous microstructures and nanoscale medium-entropy intermetallics offers an alternative solution to design ultrastrong, deformable aluminum alloys via additive manufacturing,” Zhang said. “These alloys improve upon traditional ones that are either ultrastrong or highly deformable, but not both.”

A new study in Nature Physics demonstrates a novel method for generating quantum entanglement using a quantum dot, which violates the Bell inequality. This method uses ultra-low power levels and could pave the way for scalable and efficient quantum technologies.

Advances in artificial intelligence are making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between uniquely human behaviors and those that can be replicated by machines. Should artificial general intelligence (AGI) arrive in full force—artificial intelligence that surpasses human intelligence—the boundary between human and computer capabilities will diminish entirely.

In recent months, a significant swath of journalistic bandwidth has been devoted to this potentially dystopian topic. If AGI machines develop the ability to consciously experience life, the moral and legal considerations we’ll need to give them will rapidly become unwieldy. They will have feelings to consider, thoughts to share, intrinsic desires, and perhaps fundamental rights as newly minted beings. On the other hand, if AI does not develop consciousness—and instead simply the capacity to out-think us in every conceivable situation—we might find ourselves subservient to a vastly superior yet sociopathic entity.

Neither potential future feels all that cozy, and both require an answer to exceptionally mind-bending questions: What exactly is consciousness? And will it remain a biological trait, or could it ultimately be shared by the AGI devices we’ve created?

A report from Nature shows that astronomers may have found a medium-sized black hole, a kind they’ve long looked for.

1/ OpenAI and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are partnering to explore how multimodal AI models can be safely used by laboratory scientists to advance life science research.

2/ As part of an evaluation study, novice and advanced laboratory scientists will solve standard experimental tasks…

OpenAI and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are collaborating to study the safe use of AI models by scientists in laboratory settings.

Continue reading “OpenAI partners with Los Alamos National Laboratory to advance ‘bioscientific research’” »

While taking snapshots with the high-speed “electron camera” at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Acceleratory Laboratory, researchers discovered new behavior in an ultrathin material that offers a promising approach to manipulating light that will be useful for devices that detect, control or emit light, collectively known as optoelectronic devices, and investigating how light is polarized within a material. Optoelectronic devices are used in many technologies that touch our daily lives, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), optical fibers and medical imaging.

As reported in Nano Letters (“Giant Terahertz Birefringence in an Ultrathin Anisotropic Semimetal”), the team, led by SLAC and Stanford professor Aaron Lindenberg, found that when oriented in a specific direction and subjected to linear terahertz radiation, an ultrathin film of tungsten ditelluride, which has desirable properties for polarizing light used in optical devices, circularly polarizes the incoming light.

Snapshot taken by SLAC’s high-speed electron camera, an instrument for ultrafast electron diffraction (MeV-UED), showing evidence of circular polarization of terahertz light by an ultrathin sample of tungsten ditelluride. (Sie et al., Nano Letters, 8 May 2024)

The idea of time travel has dazzled sci-fi enthusiasts for years. Science tells us that traveling to the future is technically feasible, at least if you’re willing to go near the speed of light, but going back in time is a no-go. But what if scientists could leverage the advantages of quantum physics to uncover data about complex systems that happened in the past?

New research indicates that this premise may not be that far-fetched. In a paper published June 27, 2024, in Physical Review Letters, Kater Murch, the Charles M. Hohenberg Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for Quantum Leaps at Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues Nicole Yunger Halpern at NIST and David Arvidsson-Shukur at the University of Cambridge demonstrate a new type of quantum sensor that leverages quantum entanglement to make time-traveling detectors.

Continue reading “Researchers demonstrate how to build ‘time-traveling’ quantum sensors” »