Just don’t try to pop it in that old Walkman.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 40
Neuralink Patient Controls a Robotic Arm Telepathically! (Interview w/ Nick Wray)
Follow Nick on X: https://twitter.com/Telepath_8
Pre-order linkaChart for free: https://linkaChart.ai/?utm_term=ryan2
Generate AI voice audio via ElevenLabs: https://try.elevenlabs.io/xe894d3yv35h.
Neura Pod is a series covering topics related to Neuralink, Inc. Topics such as brain-machine interfaces, brain injuries, and artificial intelligence will be explored. Host Ryan Tanaka synthesizes information, shares the latest updates, and conducts interviews to easily learn about Neuralink and its future.
Sign up for Neuralink’s Patient Registry: https://neuralink.com/trials/
Join the Neuralink team: https://neuralink.com/careers/
For those living with dementia, new study suggests shingles vaccine could slow the disease
An unusual public health policy in Wales may have produced the strongest evidence yet that a vaccine can reduce the risk of dementia. In a new study led by Stanford Medicine, researchers analyzing the health records of Welsh older adults discovered that those who received the shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia over the next seven years than those who did not receive the vaccine.
The remarkable findings, published April 2 in Nature, support an emerging theory that viruses that affect the nervous system can increase the risk of dementia. If further confirmed, the new findings suggest that a preventive intervention for dementia is already close at hand.
In a follow-up study published Dec. 2 in Cell, the researchers found that the vaccine may also benefit those already diagnosed with dementia by slowing the progress of the disease.
DAP12 deletion reduces neuronal SLIT2 and demyelination and enhances brain resilience in female tauopathy mice
How DAP12 deletion enhances brain resilience in female tauopathy mice.
Microglia selectively expresses DAP12 (DNAX-activation protein 12), which, plays a crucial role in microglial immune responses.
Previously, it was show that tauopathy mice lacking DAP12 exhibit higher tau pathology but are protected from tau pathology-induced cognitive deficits but the mechanism remains elusive.
The authors in this study show that tau processing in primary microglia is reduced by Dap12 deletion, while, tau pathology increased in female tauopathy mice, with minimal effects on males. However, brain inflammation, synapse loss, and demyelination are reduced by Dap12 deletion indicating enhanced resilience to tau toxicity.
The authors also show that elevated SLIT2 levels and demyelination in tauopathy and is reversed by Dap12 deletion. The author s also found correlation of SLIT2 expression and tau pathology in AD brain tissue. https://sciencemission.com/DAP12-deletion-reduces-neuronal-SLIT2
Background Pathogenic tau accumulation drives neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Enhancing the aging brain’s resilience to tau pathology would lead to novel therapeutic strategies. DAP12 (DNAX-activation protein 12), highly and selectively expressed by microglia, plays a crucial role in microglial immune responses. Previous studies have shown that tauopathy mice lacking DAP12 exhibit higher tau pathology but are protected from tau pathology-induced cognitive deficits. However, the exact mechanism behind this resilience remains elusive. Methods We investigated the effects of DAP12 deletion on tau pathology, as well as tau-induced brain inflammation and neurodegeneration, in homozygous human Tau P301S transgenic mice. In addition, we conducted single-nucleus RNA sequencing of hippocampal tissues to examine cell type-specific transcriptomic changes at the single-cell level.
A Fentanyl Vaccine Is About to Get Its First Major Test
ARMR’s experimental vaccine is designed to neutralize fentanyl in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain. Keeping fentanyl out of the brain would prevent the respiratory failure that comes with overdose, which causes death, as well as the euphoric high people get while taking fentanyl.
The basic idea behind ARMR’s shot is the same as any other vaccine. It trains the body’s immune system to make antibodies that recognize a foreign invader. But since fentanyl is much smaller than the pathogens our current vaccines target, it doesn’t trigger a natural antibody response on its own. To stimulate antibody production, ARMR has paired a fentanyl-like molecule with a ‘carrier’ protein—a deactivated diphtheria toxin that’s already used in several approved medical products…
…If a vaccinated person encounters fentanyl, antibodies in the blood would then bind to the drug and prevent it from traveling to the brain. Normally, fentanyl molecules can pass through the blood-brain barrier with ease, in part because of their small size. But fentanyl molecules with antibodies attached would be too big to get through. The result? No high and no overdose. The antibody-bound fentanyl molecules would eventually be passed in the urine.
The vaccine is based on work from the University of Houston, with collaborators at Tulane University designing an adjuvant derived from E.coli bacteria to boost the immune response to the vaccine. In rats, the shot blocked 92 to 98 percent of fentanyl from entering the brain and prevented the behavioral effects of the drug. The effects lasted for at least 20 weeks in the rats, which Gage thinks could translate to a year of protection in people.
ARMR Sciences of New York is trialing a vaccine in the Netherlands to protect against fentanyl-related overdose and death.
Taxonomy of Bacteria: Identification and Classification
We’ve been looking at bacteria for a few centuries now, so how do we categorize them? We love to classify things and put them in groups, so how does that work for bacteria? Well let’s learn about Gram-staining, antigens, other phenotypic and genotypic properties, and we will be well on our way to understanding this process!
Script by Kellie Vinal.
Watch the whole Microbiology playlist: http://bit.ly/ProfDaveMicrobio.
General Chemistry Tutorials: http://bit.ly/ProfDaveGenChem.
Organic Chemistry Tutorials: http://bit.ly/ProfDaveOrgChem.
Biochemistry Tutorials: http://bit.ly/ProfDaveBiochem.
Biology/Genetics Tutorials: http://bit.ly/ProfDaveBio.
Anatomy & Physiology Tutorials: http://bit.ly/ProfDaveAnatPhys.
Biopsychology Tutorials: http://bit.ly/ProfDaveBiopsych.
Immunology Tutorials: http://bit.ly/ProfDaveImmuno.
History of Drugs Videos: http://bit.ly/ProfDaveHistoryDrugs.
EMAIL► [email protected].
PATREON► / professordaveexplains.
Check out \.
The Genius Spiders Changing How We Think About Brains
Go to https://complexly.store/ to support Complexly this holiday season!
Despite having a brain the size of a pinhead, jumping spiders in the genus Portia can plan ahead, learn through trial and error, and even lie. How are they so smart? They’re changing what we know about cognition.
Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)
———
Support us for $8/month on Patreon and keep SciShow going!
https://www.patreon.com/scishow.
Or support us directly: https://complexly.com/support.
Join our SciShow email list to get the latest news and highlights:
https://mailchi.mp/scishow/email.
———
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: Jp Lynch, J.V. Rosenbalm, Cye Stoner, Chris Curry, Bethany Matthews, David Johnston, Steve Gums, Kevin Knupp, Kevin Bealer, Matt Curls, Joseph Ruf, Alan Wong, Eric Jensen, Jaap Westera, Garrett Galloway, Jeremy Mattern, Lyndsay Brown, Toyas Dhake, Jason A Saslow, Blood Doctor Kelly, Alex Hackman, Piya Shedden, Chris Mackey, Chris Peters, Adam Brainard, Friso.
———
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
SciShow Tangents Podcast: https://scishow-tangents.simplecast.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scishow.
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow.
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scishow.bsky.social.
#SciShow #science #education #learning #complexly.
———
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSt2UpXpSNlJiOu8…XBdFEF/pub
Phages Carrying Silver Nanoparticles Could Combat Antibiotic Resistance
In a recent study, Bagchi and her colleagues discovered that together, silver nanoparticles scaffolded onto phages killed bacteria more potently than either component alone.
This suggests that the conjugates may be a new, promising weapon in the fight against antibiotic resistance.
Read more: https://bit.ly/3KKm5D4
In a recent study, researchers wanted to “take advantage of both worlds,” said Damayanti Bagchi, a material chemist who led the work as a postdoctoral researcher in Irene Chen’s laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles.1 For the first time, Bagchi and her colleagues synthesized silver nanoparticles using phages called M13, which they also used as a scaffold for the nanoparticles. The silver particle and M13 phage conjugate killed bacteria more effectively than each component alone. The conjugate also slowed down the development of bacterial resistance. This work, published in Langmuir, expands researchers’ arsenal of weapons in their fight against antibiotic resistance.
“This is quite new, using phages as scaffolds [for silver nanoparticles]. I find it very exciting,” said Timea Fernandez, a biochemist at Winthrop University who was not involved in the study.
Unlocking the Potential of the Microbiome in Cancer Therapy
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is closely linked to gut microbiota dysbiosis. We synthesize evidence that carcinogenic microbes promote CRC through chronic inflammation, bacterial genotoxins, and metabolic imbalance, highlighting key pathways involving Fusobacterium nucleatum, pks+Escherichia coli, and enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF). Building on these mechanisms, we propose a minimal diagnostic signature that integrates multi-omics with targeted qPCR, and a pathway–therapy–microbiome matching framework to guide individualized treatment. Probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and bacteriophage therapy show promise as adjunctive strategies; however, standardization, safety monitoring, and regulatory readiness remain central hurdles. We advocate a three-step path to clinical implementation—stratified diagnosis, therapy matching, and longitudinal monitoring—supported by spatial multi-omics and AI-driven analytics. This approach aims to operationalize microbiome biology into deployable tools for risk stratification, treatment selection, and surveillance, advancing toward microbiome-informed precision oncology in CRC.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent malignant tumors worldwide. According to the latest data released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the global incidence of CRC is expected to exceed 3.2 million new cases in 2040, with nearly 1.6 million deaths, ranking third among all cancers after breast and lung cancer (Morgan et al., 2022). While early detection rates are relatively high in some developed countries, such as the United States and European nations, due to well-established screening programs, the situation remains critical in developing regions including India and Africa, where screening coverage is limited and over 60% of cases are diagnosed at advanced stages (Lee and Holmes, 2023). This “high-incidence and high-mortality” pattern not only poses a significant threat to public health but also imposes a considerable burden on global healthcare systems.
With the rapid development of high-throughput sequencing, metagenomics, and metabolomics, the role of the gut microbiota in human health and disease has drawn increasing attention (Fan and Pedersen, 2020). Gut microbes maintain intestinal homeostasis and host immunity. They also contribute to CRC via chronic inflammation, bacterial genotoxins, oxidative stress, and dysregulated microbial metabolites (Dougherty and Jobin, 2023; White and Sears, 2023). Given that the colon and rectum harbor a highly dense microbial ecosystem, gut microbiota dysbiosis is now considered a pivotal environmental factor contributing to CRC onset and progression.