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Investigators at Cedars-Sinai have created a unique and detailed molecular profile of endometriosis to help improve therapeutic options for the millions of women suffering from the disease.

The study is published today in the journal Nature Genetics.

“Endometriosis has been an understudied disease in part because of limited cellular data that has hindered the development of effective treatments. In this study we applied a new technology called single-cell genomics, which allowed us to profile the many different cell types contributing to the disease,” said Kate Lawrenson, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cedars-Sinai, and co-senior and corresponding author of the study.

Researchers have used fruit flies to decipher an unexplained connection between Alzheimer’s disease and a genetic variation, revealing that it causes neurons to die.

The findings from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI)-led team uncover a possible cause of neurodegeneration in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and open the door for the future development of new treatments for cognitive diseases.

The study, “An increase in mitochondrial TOM activates apoptosis to drive retinal neurodegeneration,” with collaborators from Australian National University, is published in Scientific Reports.

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Canada has found that obesity in young mice can lead to inflammatory disease later in life even if the mouse is no longer overweight. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes studying early life obesity in test mice and the development of age-related macular degeneration. Kevin Mangum and Katherine Gallagher with the University of Michigan have published a Perspectives piece in the same journal issue outlining the research.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in older people can lead to permanent blindness. Prior research has shown obesity plays a major role in its development. Other research has also shown that AMD is a neuroinflammatory condition. It is believed that the inflammation in the eyes is related to obesity, but the exact connection has not been identified. In this new effort, the researchers sought to find the connection by studying obesity and macular degeneration in mice.

The work involved feeding test mice a high-fat diet and studying the impact on adipose tissue macrophages (types of white blood cells that are part of the immune system). They found that obesity in mice led to epigenetic changes in the macrophages that resulted in an increase in expression of genes that incite an inflammatory response. They also found that the increased expression continued even after the test mice were put on a reduced diet that allowed them to return to their normal weight.

A team of scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has found the missing puzzle piece in the mystery of how melanoma tumors control their mortality.

In a paper published in Science, they describe how they identified the specific genetic changes that allow tumors to grow rapidly while also preventing their own death. This discovery could have significant implications for the way melanoma is understood and treated by oncologists.

Researchers at Princeton’s Department of Chemistry discovered the first known de novo protein that catalyzes, or drives, the synthesis of quantum dots.

Nature uses 20 canonical amino acids.

Continue reading “Princeton Chemists Create Quantum Dots at Room Temperature Using Custom Protein” »

Sixty-six million years ago, the age of the dinosaurs came to a dramatic close as a huge asteroid impact accelerated them on a path towards extinction. Not all of them died out, however; those that survived went on to become today’s birds.

Scientists are still trying to carefully map out the anatomical changes that occurred between dinosaurs and birds during this time, and there’s arguably no better way to do this than to engage in a little “reverse evolution.” With this in mind, a team of researchers has grown “dinosaur legs” in chicken embryos, as revealed in their study in the journal Evolution.

Remarkably, previous research manipulating chickens into “becoming” dinosaurs has already taken place. Back in 2015, a study showcased that chickens that had been tweaked during embryonic development could grow a dinosaur-like snout. A year earlier, a more low-tech study demonstrated how a few strategically-placed weights could make a chicken walk along like a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Since the discovery of genetics, people have dreamed of being able to correct diseases, select traits in children before birth, and build better human beings. Naturally, many serious technical and ethical questions surround this endeavor. Luckily, tonights’ guest is as good a guide as we could hope to have.

Dr. Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. He has done extensive research in the field of computational genomics, and is the founder of several startups.

#geneticengineering #intelligence

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Bristle Discount Link (Oral Microbiome Quantification):
ConquerAging15
https://www.bmq30trk.com/4FL3LK/GTSC3/

Continue reading “Attempting To Optimize The Oral Microbiome, Part 3: A Role For Berberine” »

McMaster University researcher Sheila Singh and her team have discovered how glioblastoma, a lethal brain cancer, can evade treatments and kill.

The researchers found the cancer cells that survive the first round of radiotherapy or chemotherapy do so by mutating during the post-treatment minimal residual disease (MRD) or dormant state. The MRD profile of each patient was mapped using single cell sequencing to find a genetic signature that predicted how the cancer would recur in each individual.

Singh said that by mapping the MRD, researchers found that each patient had a different trajectory to their cancer recurring, potentially opening the door to future treatments tailored to each individual with glioblastoma. Singh’s team monitored five patients between 2018 and 2022.