Lifeboat Foundation

Chemical tags on RNA usher in new realm of epigenetics.

Irina Kareva translates biology into mathematics and vice versa. She writes mathematical models that describe the dynamics of cancer, with the goal of developing new drugs that target tumors. “The power and beauty of mathematical modeling lies in the fact that it makes you formalize, in a very rigorous way, what we think we know,” Kareva says. “It can help guide us to where we should keep looking, and where there may be a dead end.” It all comes down to asking the right question and translating it to the right equation, and back.

Amanda Leverett Davis was diagnosed with an aggressive bone cancer called chondroblastic osteosarcoma in March of 2017. By the time her doctors discovered it, the disease had metastasized and advanced to stage 3. Amanda was told it was non-curative.

But nearly two years after her initial diagnosis, Amanda is still alive to share her story, and remarkably, she’s cancer free.

In biotech these days, CRISPR/Cas9 is a hot topic, because of its utility as a precise gene editing tool. Before humans repurposed it, CRISPR/Cas9 was a sort of internal immune system bacteria use to defend themselves against phages, or viruses that infect bacteria, by slicing up the phages’ DNA.

Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine and the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens have found that the “scissors” component of CRISPR/Cas9 sometimes gets stuck.

Cas9, an enzyme that cuts DNA, can also block gene activity without doing any cutting. In the pathogenic bacterium Francisella novicida, Cas9 regulates genes that need to be shut off for the bacteria to cause disease.

The successful treatment shows “precision medicine” can be expanded beyond cancers, where it has shown the greatest promise, scientists reported Monday.

Some mice receiving a therapy that includes CRISPR gene editing appear to have been cured of HIV, but safety concerns must be overcome before human trials.

Can space exploration help us protect biodiversity on Earth, and what cautions does our history in space offer?

The ways in which the communities of bacteria living within our bodies influence our overall well-being are becoming better understood all the time, and with that better understanding comes potential new ways to intervene for better health outcomes. Adding to this is a new discovery by researchers in Melbourne, who have described how a healthy microbiome can boost the activity of killer immune cells that are vital to fighting off infections and cancer.

Developing a clean (carbon-free), safe and economical form of energy, with abundant, globally distributed fuel to serve humanity for tens of thousands of years: Fusion.