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Archive for the ‘genetics’ category: Page 4

Dec 19, 2023

The era of CRISPR therapeutics is here — what can we expect?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Two geneticists explain the groundbreaking CRISPR-based therapies approved for sickle-cell disease and β-thalassaemia, and other genetic therapeutics in development, including base-editing and prime-editing.

Dec 18, 2023

A CRISPR pioneer looks back as the first gene-editing therapy is approved

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

In 2007, Luciano Marraffini struck out on what was then a scientifically lonely path: to understand CRISPR, which had been discovered in bacteria only about a decade before.

Seventeen years later, we all know what CRISPR is: a revolution in medicine. A once-in-a-lifetime scientific breakthrough. The most promising tool for gene therapy ever discovered. But back then, “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” were merely curious genetic fragments with no known purpose.

“When I started, there was nothing that indicated that it was going to one day help people to cure genetic diseases,” Marraffini recalls.

Dec 17, 2023

Unveiling the Dark Genome: LINE-1’s Role in Disease

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

Summary: A new study illuminated a part of the “dark genome,” specifically focusing on LINE-1, a genetic element linked to various diseases and aging.

Researchers have provided the first high-resolution images and structural details of LINE-1, an “ancient genetic parasite” with about 100 active copies in each person. This research, involving international collaboration, reveals LINE-1’s mechanism of integrating DNA into the human genome and its correlation with diseases like cancer and neurodegeneration.

The study’s findings offer a foundation for potential treatments targeting this retrotransposon.

Dec 17, 2023

Avoiding The Age-Related Increase For Blood Pressure

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

Join us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/MichaelLustgartenPhDDiscount Links: Epigenetic, Telomere Testing: https://trudiagnostic.com/?irclickid=U-s3Ii2r7x

Dec 16, 2023

Vertex’s First Crispr Gene Editing Therapy Gets EU Backing

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics, health

Europe’s health regulator followed the US and UK in backing the first gene-editing therapy to use Crispr technology, a Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Crispr Therapeutics AG treatment for sickle cell disease.

The European Medicines Agency’s expert panel recommended on Friday authorizing the Vertex and Crispr drug, Casgevy, for people with severe sickle cell disease and another serious hereditary blood disorder, beta-thalassemia, which is traditionally treated with repeated transfusions. Vertex said before the ruling that it had yet to establish a European list price for the one-time therapy, which costs $2.2 million in the US.

The treatment makes precisely targeted changes in patients’ DNA, a months-long process that requires removing bone marrow and a stem cell transplant. In Europe, Vertex said its initial focus will be on countries with the highest numbers of patients, including France, Italy, the UK and Germany.

Dec 16, 2023

8th FNIP webinar|1st speaker|Dr. G. Perea: Time-Controlling Activation of Astrocyte–Neuron Networks

Posted by in categories: genetics, neuroscience

ABSTRACT: Optogenetics has been widely expanded to enhance or suppress neuronal activity and it has been recently applied to glial cells. Here, we will discuss about a novel approach based on selective expression of melanopsin, a G-protein-coupled photopigment, in astrocytes. We will show the selective expression of melanopsin in astrocytes allows triggering astrocytic Ca2+ signalling, but also studying astrocyte–neuron networks and the behavioral astrocytic contribution.\

Chair and introduction: Dr. Letizia Mariotti (CNR — Institute of Neuroscience)

Dec 16, 2023

Aging Rewind: What The Studies Show — Can Young Plasma Turn Back the Epigenetic Clock?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

A quickie about E5.


Dr. Steve Horvath shares some studies on evaluating whether young plasma fraction affects the epigenetic clock and lifespan in this short video.\
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37875…\
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti…\
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37500…\
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2…\

Continue reading “Aging Rewind: What The Studies Show — Can Young Plasma Turn Back the Epigenetic Clock?” »

Dec 15, 2023

Researchers define new class of regulatory element in DNA

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

Researchers at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine’s Laboratory of Gene Regulation, led by Professor Doug Higgs and Dr. Mira Kassouf, have published a study in the journal Cell, in which they reveal another piece of the puzzle of how the code in our DNA is read.

In this study, the authors introduce the concept of “facilitators,” a newly identified type of non-coding DNA that can help to drive gene expression.

All of the in your body contain the same DNA. However, these cells are able to develop into over 200 different types and make up a variety of different specialized tissues such as the skin, the blood, and the brain.

Dec 14, 2023

Unlocking the human genome: Innovative machine learning tool predicts functional consequences of genetic variants

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health, robotics/AI

In a novel study, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have introduced LoGoFunc, an advanced computational tool that predicts pathogenic gain and loss-of-function variants across the genome.

Unlike current methods that predominantly focus on loss of function, LoGoFunc distinguishes among different types of harmful mutations, offering potentially valuable insights into diverse disease outcomes. The findings are described in Genome Medicine.

Genetic variations can alter , with some mutations boosting activity or introducing new functions (gain of function), while others diminish or eliminate function (loss of function). These changes can have significant implications for and the treatment of disease.

Dec 14, 2023

Kinematic self-replication in reconfigurable organisms

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, genetics, robotics/AI

All living systems perpetuate themselves via growth in or on the body, followed by splitting, budding, or birth. We find that synthetic multicellular assemblies can also replicate kinematically by moving and compressing dissociated cells in their environment into functional self-copies. This form of perpetuation, previously unseen in any organism, arises spontaneously over days rather than evolving over millennia. We also show how artificial intelligence methods can design assemblies that postpone loss of replicative ability and perform useful work as a side effect of replication. This suggests other unique and useful phenotypes can be rapidly reached from wild-type organisms without selection or genetic engineering, thereby broadening our understanding of the conditions under which replication arises, phenotypic plasticity, and how useful replicative machines may be realized.

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