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Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Emory Vaccine Center (EVC) are first to show a new adjuvant, 3M-052, helps induce long-lasting immunity against HIV. The study results are published today in Science Immunology.

In this pre–clinical study that included 90 rhesus monkeys, the researchers showed 3M-052, a new, synthetic small molecule that targets a specific receptor (TLR 7/8), successfully induced vaccine-specific, long-lived bone marrow plasma cells (BM-LLPCs), which are critical for durable immunity. In a striking observation, 3M-052-induced BM-LLPCs were maintained at high numbers for more than one year after vaccination. This prolonged interval is not only feasible in monitoring pre–clinical effectiveness, it is also highly informative in down selecting vaccine candidates.

First author Sudhir Pai Kasturi, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and a research assistant professor at Yerkes and the EVC, says, “We have known adjuvants are critical immunity-boosting supplements that help improve the effectiveness of vaccines. Until now, however, it has been unclear which class of adjuvants can promote stable and long-lived immunity in nonhuman primate models. Our study provides that information.”

In 2018, China launched a secret project with the goal of eradicating U.S. submarines.

It’s called Project Guanlan, which means “Watching the Big Waves,” and it’s a space-based laser weapon.

If you’re a regular reader, then this won’t come as a surprise to you.

Continue reading “China’s Top-Secret Laser Project” »

When the next Ford F-150 arrives on American roads, you’ll recognize it immediately even if you can’t see the emblem on its grille. The company published a preview image that reveals the truck’s LED lighting signature.

Posted on Twitter, the blacked-out photo is our first official look at the next-generation F-150 due out for the 2021 model year. It confirms the front end receives two pairs of LEDs that create the outline of a rectangle when lit. The top bars frame the headlights and stretch into the grille, while the lower bars underline the fog lights.

Our spies have regularly sent us images of camouflaged F-150 test mules taken all over the United States, so we have a decent idea of what to expect from the truck, and the preview image reveals nothing that we don’t already know. It wears a tall hood with sculpted sides, vertical headlights, and rectangular mirrors. Its design is more of an evolution than a revolution, but Ford hinted it’s making significant changes under the body panels.

There’s a lot of hope that artificial intelligence could help speed up the time it takes to make a drug and also increase the rate of success. Several startups have emerged to capitalize on this opportunity. But Insitro is a bit different from some of these other companies, which rely more heavily on machine learning than biology.

Machine learning can speed up the creation of new drugs and unlock the mysteries of major diseases, says Insitro CEO Daphne Koller.

[Photo: Ivan-balvan/iStock]

Continue reading “Combining AI and biology could solve drug discovery’s biggest problems” »

The vessel passed through a narrow strip of waters between the prefecture’s Tokara island chain and Amami Oshima without surfacing, according to the ministry.

It was believed to be a Chinese Navy submarine, but the Defense Ministry refused to formally disclose this or its type because that could provide clues about the MSDF’s detection abilities.

Under international law, submarines must surface and raise their national flags inside foreign territorial waters. But underwater cruises are not banned in contiguous zones, which surround territorial waters.

Lost or abandoned fishing gear is being fished out of the sea. To keep it out of the dump, one company is turning the garbage into synthetic wood with the hope that it has a new role back in the sea.

MIT engineers have designed a “brain-on-a-chip,” smaller than a piece of confetti, that is made from tens of thousands of artificial brain synapses known as memristors — silicon-based components that mimic the information-transmitting synapses in the human brain.

The researchers borrowed from principles of metallurgy to fabricate each memristor from alloys of silver and copper, along with silicon. When they ran the chip through several visual tasks, the chip was able to “remember” stored images and reproduce them many times over, in versions that were crisper and cleaner compared with existing memristor designs made with unalloyed elements.

Their results, published on June 8, 2020, in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, demonstrate a promising new memristor design for neuromorphic devices — electronics that are based on a new type of circuit that processes information in a way that mimics the brain’s neural architecture. Such brain-inspired circuits could be built into small, portable devices, and would carry out complex computational tasks that only today’s supercomputers can handle.

Quantum radar could find it.

For the past few years, the possibility of a new (and big!) planet hanging around in the far outer solar system has tantalized scientists and the public alike. Is “Planet Nine” out there or not?

:oooooo.

CRISPR-Cas9 is a revolutionary gene-editing technology that offers the potential to treat diseases such as cancer, but the effects of CRISPR in patients are currently unknown. Stadtmauer et al. report a phase 1 clinical trial to assess the safety and feasibility of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in three patients with advanced cancer (see the Perspective by Hamilton and Doudna). They removed immune cells called T lymphocytes from patients and used CRISPR-Cas9 to disrupt three genes (TRAC, TRBC, and PDCD1) with the goal of improving antitumor immunity. A cancer-targeting transgene, NY-ESO-1, was also introduced to recognize tumors. The engineered cells were administered to patients and were well tolerated, with durable engraftment observed for the study duration. These encouraging observations pave the way for future trials to study CRISPR-engineered cancer immunotherapies.

Science, this issue p. eaba7365; see also p. 976.