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Scientists at Scripps Research have reported success in initial tests of a new, nanotech-based strategy against autoimmune diseases.

The scientists, who reported their results in ACS Nano, engineered cell-like “nanoparticles” that target only the immune cells driving an autoimmune reaction, leaving the rest of the immune system intact and healthy. The nanoparticles greatly delayed, and in some animals even prevented, severe disease in a mouse model of arthritis.

“The potential advantage of this approach is that it would enable safe, long-term treatment for autoimmune diseases where the immune system attacks its own tissues or organs—using a method that won’t cause broad immune suppression, as current treatments do,” says study senior author James Paulson, Ph.D., Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Chair of Chemistry in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research.

New work from Gero, conducted in collaboration with researchers from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Genome Protection Inc. and published in Nature Communications, demonstrates the power of AI combined with analytical tools borrowed from the physics of complex systems to provide insights into the nature of aging, resilience and future medical interventions for age-related diseases including cancer.

Longevity. Technology: Modern AI systems exhibit superhuman-level performance in medical diagnostics applications, such as identifying cancer on MRI scans. This time, the researchers took one step further and used AI to figure out principles that describe how the biological process of aging unfolds in time.

The researchers trained an AI algorithm on a large dataset composed of multiple blood tests taken along the life course of tens of thousands of aging mice to predict the future health state of an animal from its current state. The artificial neural network precisely projected the health condition of an aging mouse with the help of a single variable, which was termed dynamic frailty indicator (dFI) that accurately characterises the damage that an animal accumulates throughout life [1].

Cancer cells delete DNA

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

As any weekend warrior understands, cartilage injuries to joints such as knees, shoulders, and hips can prove extremely painful and debilitating. In addition, conditions that cause cartilage degeneration, like arthritis and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ), affect 350 million people in the world and cost the U.S. public health system more than $303 billion every year. Patients suffering from these conditions experience increased pain and discomfort over time.

However, an exciting study led by faculty at The Forsyth Institute suggests new strategies for making cartilage cells with huge implications in regenerative medicine for future cartilage injuries and degeneration treatments. In a paper, entitled “GATA3 mediates nonclassical β-catenin signaling in skeletal cell fate determination and ectopic chondrogenesis,” co-first authors Takamitsu Maruyama and Daigaku Hasegawa, and senior author Wei Hsu, describe two breakthrough discoveries, including a new understanding of a multifaced protein called β-catenin.

Dr. Hsu is a senior scientist at the Forsyth Insitute and a Professor of Developmental Biology at Harvard University. He is also an affiliate faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Other members conducting the study included Swiss scientists Tomas Valenta and Konrad Basler, and Canadian scientists Jody Haigh and Maxime Bouchard. The study appears in the most recent issue of Science Advances.

Malaria is found in more than 90 countries around the world, causing 241 million cases and an estimated 627,000 deaths every year. Vaccines are one intervention that could help eliminate this deadly disease, yet a highly effective vaccine remains elusive. Recent technological advances in vaccine development–such as the mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV2–could lead to a new generation of malaria vaccines.

Now, a research team led by George Washington University has developed two mRNA vaccine candidates that are highly effective in reducing both malaria infection and transmission. The team also found that the two experimental vaccines induced a powerful immune response regardless of whether they were given individually or in combination. The study was published today in npj Vaccines, an open-access scientific journal that is part of the Nature Portfolio.

“Malaria elimination will not happen overnight but such vaccines could potentially banish malaria from many parts of the world,” Nirbhay Kumar, a professor of global health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, said. “The mRNA vaccine technology can really be a game changer. We saw how successful this technology was in terms of fighting COVID and for this study we adapted it and used it to develop tools to combat malaria.”

Dr. Jennifer A. Fogarty, Ph.D. (https://www.bcm.edu/people-search/jennifer-fogarty-100936) is the Chief Scientific Officer for the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH — https://www.bcm.edu/academic-centers/space-medicine/translat…-institute) at Baylor College of Medicine, and the Director of the Applied Health and Performance at Sophic Synergistics LLC.

As Chief Scientist of TRISH, Dr. Fogarty leads an innovative and high-risk research and technology development portfolio to address the most challenging human health and performance risks of space exploration.

Continue reading “Dr. Jennifer Fogarty, Ph.D. — Baylor — Innovations To Safeguard Health & Performance In Deep Space” »

In our cells, the language of DNA is written, making each of us unique. A tandem repeat occurs in DNA when a pattern of one or more nucleotides—the basic structural unit of DNA coded in the base of chemicals cytosine ©, adenine (A), guanine (G) and thymine (T)—is repeated multiple times in tandem. An example might be: CAG CAG CAG, in which the pattern CAG is repeated three times.

Now, using state-of-the-art whole-genome sequencing and machine learning techniques, the UNC School of Medicine lab of Jin Szatkiewicz, Ph.D., associate professor of genetics, and colleagues conducted one of the first and the largest investigations of tandem repeats in schizophrenia, elucidating their contribution to the development of this devastating disease.

Published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, the research shows that individuals with schizophrenia had a significantly higher rate of rare tandem repeats in their genomes—7% more than individuals without schizophrenia. And they observed that the tandem repeats were not randomly located throughout the genome; they were primarily found in genes crucial to brain function and known to be important in schizophrenia, according to previous studies.

Functional adrenal glands have been grown in the lab by coaxing a type of stem cell to develop in a certain way by constantly tweaking the mix of chemicals they are bathed in.

A team in Korea has used sound waves to connect tiny droplets of liquid metals inside a polymer casing. The novel technique is a way to make tough, highly conductive circuits that can be flexed and stretched to five times their original size.

Making stretchable electronics for skin-based sensors and implantable medical devices requires materials that can conduct electricity like metals but deform like rubber. Conventional metals don’t cut it for this use. To make elastic conductors, researchers have looked at conductive polymers and composites of metals and polymers. But these materials lose their conductivity after being stretched and released a few times.

Liquid metals, alloys that stay liquid at room temperature, are a more promising option. Gallium-based liquid metals, typically alloys of gallium and indium, have caught the most attention because of their low toxicity and high electrical and heat conductivity. They are also tough because of an oxide skin that forms on their surface, and they stick well to various substrates.