Lifeboat Foundation

RNA facilitates cell-to-cell communication through vesicles, influencing biological processes across species.

CRISPR-Cas is used broadly in research and medicine to edit, insert, delete or regulate genes in organisms. TnpB is an ancestor of this well-known “gene scissors” but is much smaller and thus easier to transport into cells.

Using protein engineering and AI algorithms, University of Zurich researchers have now enhanced TnpB capabilities to make DNA editing more efficient and versatile, paving the way for treating a genetic defect for high cholesterol in the future. The work has been published in Nature Methods.

CRISPR-Cas systems, which consist of protein and RNA components, were originally developed as a natural defense mechanism of bacteria to fend off intruding viruses. Over the last decade, re-engineering these so-called “gene scissors” has revolutionized genetic engineering in science and medicine.

Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists who arranged for 48 human bioengineered heart tissue samples to spend 30 days at the International Space Station report evidence that the low gravity conditions in space weakened the tissues and disrupted their normal rhythmic beats when compared to Earth-bound samples from the same source.

The scientists said the heart tissues “really don’t fare well in space,” and over time, the tissues aboard the space station beat about half as strongly as tissues from the same source kept on Earth.

The findings, they say, expand scientists’ knowledge of low gravity’s potential effects on astronauts’ survival and health during long space missions, and they may serve as models for studying heart muscle aging and therapeutics on Earth.

New research in quantum entanglement could vastly improve disease detection, such as for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

A Stanford Medicine-led study found that residual liver cancer cells interact with neighboring macrophages to prompt the disease to reappear.

Discover how qubits, the building blocks of quantum computing, are revolutionizing fields like medicine and cryptography. Learn why they’re the future.

Taking aspirin regularly cuts the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by 40% in people with diabetes and by 20% in the general population, according to research.

The PLANETS cancer charity funded the study, which it said has made a “significant finding” for the treatment of what is “one of the worst” cancers because of its poor survival rate.

Researchers at University Hospital Southampton and the University of Southampton studied almost 10,000 people from the UK Biobank – a cohort of 500,000 people aged between 37 and 73 recruited between 2006 and 2010.

Fever temperatures rev up immune cell metabolism, proliferation and activity, but they also — in a particular subset of T cells — cause mitochondrial stress, DNA damage and cell death, Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers have discovered.

The findings, published Sept. 20 in the journal Science Immunology, offer a mechanistic understanding for how cells respond to heat and could explain how chronic inflammation contributes to the development of cancer.

The impact of fever temperatures on cells is a relatively understudied area, said Jeff Rathmell, PhD, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Immunobiology and corresponding author of the new study. Most of the existing temperature-related research relates to agriculture and how extreme temperatures impact crops and livestock, he noted. It’s challenging to change the temperature of animal models without causing stress, and cells in the laboratory are generally cultured in incubators that are set at human body temperature: 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

A BREAKTHROUGH cancer treatment “could be the cure” for a “death sentence” form of the disease after making tumours disappear.

The experimental approach has seen remarkable success in some brain cancer patients — with experts saying it could be available on the NHS within five years.