The creatures made famous by Game of Thrones went extinct some 13000 years ago. Now geneticists know a little more about where they come from.
A team of researchers at Columbia University has developed a way to allow DNA strands to store more data. In their study, published in the journal Science, the group applied a small amount of electricity to DNA strands to allow for encoding more information than was possible with other methods.
For several years, researchers have been looking for ways to increase data storage capacity—storage requirements are expected to exceed capacity in the near future as demand skyrockets. One such approach has involved encoding data into strands of DNA—prior research has shown that it is possible. In the early stages of such research, scientists manually edited strands to add characteristics to represent zeroes or ones. More recently, researchers have used the CRISPR gene editing tool. Most such studies used DNA extracted from the tissue of deceased animals. More recently, researchers have begun efforts to move the research to living animals because it will last longer. And not just in the edited strands—the information they contain could conceivably be passed on to offspring, allowing data to be stored for very long periods of time.
Back in 2017, another team at Columbia University used CRISPR to detect a certain signal—in their case, it was the presence of sugar molecules. Adding such molecules resulted in gene expressions of plasmid DNA. Over time, the editing process was improved as genetic bits were added to represent ones and zeroes. Unfortunately, the system only allowed for storing a few bits of data.
Dr. Halima Benbouza is an Algerian scientist in the field of agronomic sciences and biological engineering.
She received her doctorate in 2004 from the University Agro BioTech Gembloux, Belgium studying Plant Breeding and Genetics and was offered a postdoctoral position to work on a collaborative project with the Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture in Stoneville, Mississippi.
Aging is, at least for now, inevitable, and our eyes are not immune to those changes. Vision loss is, in fact, one of the top 10 causes of disability in the US., however, shows that this might be reversible in the future.
A large team of geneticists, ophthalmologists, and other scientists used a group of molecules called Yamanaka factors to turn cells in the eyes of mature mice back to a youthful state. This reversed the damage done by aging, and the cells were then able to regenerate, connect back to the brain, and vision was restored in both models of normal aging and glaucoma.
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O,.o circa 2020.
Scientists from the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a simple, high-throughput method for transferring isolated mitochondria and their associated mitochondrial DNA into mammalian cells. This approach enables researchers to tailor a key genetic component of cells, to study and potentially treat debilitating diseases such as cancer, diabetes and metabolic disorders.
A study, published today in the journal Cell Reports, describes how the new UCLA-developed device, called MitoPunch, transfers mitochondria into 100000 or more recipient cells simultaneously, which is a significant improvement from existing mitochondrial transfer technologies. The device is part of the continued effort by UCLA scientists to understand mutations in mitochondrial DNA by developing controlled, manipulative approaches that improve the function of human cells or model human mitochondrial diseases better.
CRISPR gene editing in mice has been used to correct a mutation that can cause rapid ageing, dramatically improving the animals’ health and lifespan.
New gene-editing technology could be used to save species from extinction—or to eliminate them.
In Michelle O’Malley’s lab, a simple approach suggests a big leap forward in addressing the challenge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Scientists have long been aware of the dangerous overuse of antibiotics and the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant microbes that have resulted. While over-prescription of antibiotics for medicinal use has unsettling implications for human health, so too does the increasing presence of antibiotics in the natural environment. The latter may stem from the improper disposal of medicines, but also from the biotechnology field, which has depended on antibiotics as a selection device in the lab.
“In biotech, we have for a long time relied on antibiotic and chemical selections to kill cells that we don’t want to grow,” said UC Santa Barbara chemical engineer Michelle O’Malley. “If we have a genetically engineered cell and want to get only that cell to grow among a population of cells, we give it an antibiotic resistance gene. The introduction of an antibiotic will kill all the cells that are not genetically engineered and allow only the ones we want — the genetically modified organisms [GMOs] — to survive. However, many organisms have evolved the means to get around our antibiotics, and they are a growing problem in both the biotech world and in the natural environment. The issue of antibiotic resistance is a grand challenge of our time, one that is only growing in its importance.”
Biotechnologists at Delft University of Technology have built an artificial chromosome in yeast. The chromosome can exist alongside natural yeast chromosomes, and serves as a platform to safely and easily add new functions to the micro-organism. Researchers can use the artificial chromosome to convert yeast cells into living factories capable of producing useful chemicals and even medicines.
Biotechnologists from all over the world are trying to engineer yeast cells and other micro-organisms such that they can produce useful substances. To do this, they have to make adjustments to the existing genetic material of the cell. For example, they insert a number of genes into the yeast genome using CRISPR-Cas9, or switch off existing genes, thereby gradually transforming yeast cells into ‘cell factories’ that produce useful substances.
The disadvantage of this method is that it is not possible to make all the necessary changes at once, but that several rounds of genetic manipulation are needed. This is time-consuming. Additionally, multiple sessions of DNA-tinkering using CRISPR-Cas9 can lead to mutations that disrupt (essential) functions. The result of this could be, for instance, that the metabolism of the cell is disrupted, causing problems with growth and division.
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is probably more diverse than our traditional models suggest.
Postmortem, RNA sequencing has revealed three major molecular subtypes of the disease, each of which presents differently in the brain and which holds a unique genetic risk.
Such knowledge could help us predict who is most vulnerable to each subtype, how their disease might progress and what treatments might suit them best, potentially leading to better outcomes.
