Lifeboat Foundation

Spider silk is one of the strongest materials on Earth, technically stronger than steel for a material of its size. However, it’s tough to obtain—spiders are too territorial (and cannibalistic) to breed them like silkworms, leading scientists to turn to artificial options.

Teaching microbes to produce the spider silk proteins through genetic engineering is one such option, but this has proved challenging because the proteins tend to stick together, reducing the silk’s yield. So, Bingbing Gao and colleagues wanted to modify the natural protein sequence to design an easily spinnable, yet still stable, spider silk using microbes.

The team first used these microbes to produce the silk proteins, adding extra peptides as well. The new peptides, following a pattern found in the protein sequence of amyloid polypeptides, helped the artificial silk proteins form an orderly structure when folded and prevented them from sticking together in solution, increasing their yield.

Water contamination by the chemicals used in today’s technology is a rapidly growing problem globally. A recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that 98 percent of people tested had detectable levels of PFAS, a family of particularly long-lasting compounds also known as “forever chemicals,” in their bloodstream.

A new filtration material developed by researchers at MIT might provide a nature-based solution to this stubborn contamination issue. The material, based on natural silk and cellulose, can remove a wide variety of these persistent chemicals as well as heavy metals. And, its antimicrobial properties can help keep the filters from fouling.

The findings are described in the journal ACS Nano, in a paper by MIT postdoc Yilin Zhang, professor of civil and environmental engineering Benedetto Marelli, and four others from MIT.

Immunotherapies are the cornerstone of treatment for multiple myeloma (MM), demonstrating clinically meaningful improvements in response rates and progression-free survival (PFS) through the use of more precise, targeted therapies.

Experts discuss immunotherapy advancements and challenges of resistance, efficacy, and toxicity in patient management.

These OptoAssays allow for the bidirectional, light-induced movement of biomolecules and the reading of test results without the need for additional mechanical washing steps.

An OptoAssay uses a sender and a receiver area, which are brought into contact by adding the test reagent. In the sender area, there is a special protein that reacts to light. This protein can either bind or release specific molecules, depending on the type of light it captures.

When an LED emits red light at a wavelength of 660 nanometers, the molecules bind to the protein. Upon switching to far-red light with a wavelength of 740 nanometers, the molecules detach from the protein. In the receiver area, there are antibodies specifically designed to recognize and capture the target protein in the test reagent.

A recent study has unveiled a transformative nonlinear optical metasurface technology. This new technology, characterized by structures smaller than the wavelength of light, paves the way for significant advancements in next-generation communication technologies, including quantum light sources and medical diagnostic devices.

Koo and his team tested CREME on another AI-powered DNN genome analysis tool called Enformer. They wanted to know how Enformer’s algorithm makes predictions about the genome. Koo says questions like that are central to his work.

“We have these big, powerful models,” Koo said. “They’re quite compelling at taking DNA sequences and predicting gene expression. But we don’t really have any good ways of trying to understand what these models are learning. Presumably, they’re making accurate predictions because they’ve learned a lot of the rules about gene regulation, but we don’t actually know what their predictions are based off of.”

With CREME, Koo’s team uncovered a series of genetic rules that Enformer learned while analyzing the genome. That insight may one day prove invaluable for drug discovery. The investigators stated, “CREME provides a powerful toolkit for translating the predictions of genomic DNNs into mechanistic insights of gene regulation … Applying CREME to Enformer, a state-of-the-art DNN, we identify cis-regulatory elements that enhance or silence gene expression and characterize their complex interactions.” Koo added, “Understanding the rules of gene regulation gives you more options for tuning gene expression levels in precise and predictable ways.”

Vanderbilt University researchers, led by alumnus Bryan Gitschlag, have uncovered groundbreaking insights into the evolution of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). In their paper in Nature Communications titled “Multiple distinct evolutionary mechanisms govern the dynamics of selfish mitochondrial genomes in Caenorhabditis elegans,” the team reveals how selfish mtDNA, which can reduce the fitness of its host, manages to persist within cells through aggressive competition or by avoiding traditional selection pressures. The study combines mathematical models and experiments to explain the coexistence of selfish and cooperative mtDNA within the cell, offering new insights into the complex evolutionary dynamics of these essential cellular components.

Gitschlag, an alumnus of Vanderbilt University, conducted the research while in the lab of Maulik Patel, assistant professor of biological sciences. He is now a postdoctoral researcher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in David McCandlish’s lab. Gitschlag collaborated closely with fellow Patel Lab members, including James Held, a recent PhD graduate, and Claudia Pereira, a former staff member of the lab.

There’s a surprise twist in the battle to control genome editing.

Sleep, fasting, exercise, green porridge, black coffee, a healthy social life—there is an abundance of advice out there on how to live a good, long life. Researchers are working hard to determine why some people live longer than others, and how we get the most out of our increasingly long lives.

Now researchers from the Center for Healthy Aging, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that a particular protein known as OSER1 has a great influence on longevity. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

“We identified this protein that can extend longevity. It is a novel pro-longevity factor, and it is a protein that exists in various animals, such as fruit flies, nematodes, silkworms, and in humans,” says Professor Lene Juel Rasmussen, senior author behind the new study.