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Scientists find way to predict and control gene expression(Medical Xpress)—EPFL scientists have developed a "guide" that can be used to precisely predict the number of proteins a given gene will produce under varying conditions. This work will help biologists to engineer cells.
Genes are segments of DNA within our cells that oversee how our bodies take shape. They receive orders to produce specific proteins; these proteins become the building blocks of everything in our body, from organs to the hemoglobin in our red blood cells. Our genes are thus at the very center of who we are.
A drug used to treat blood cancers may also stop the spread of invasive breast cancer, researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida have discovered. Their study, published online in Breast Cancer Research, found that in the lab and in animals, the drug decitabine turns on a gene coding for protein kinase D1 (PRKD1) that halts the ability of cancer cells to separate from a tumor and spread to distant organs.
"Treatment with low doses of decitabine in an animal model of breast cancer restored PRKD1 expression, reduced tumor size, and blocked metastasis to the lung," says the study's senior investigator, Peter Storz, Ph.D., a biochemist and molecular biologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
A way of building body parts similar to the way a spider spins its web has been demonstrated by researchers in the UK.
The team at University College London used a constant stream of cells mixed with a polymer to weave the new tissues.
They think the technique could produce better results than other ways of building body parts for transplant.
THe team of researchers tested the technique by constructing blood vessels in mice.
There are many methods being used to grow organs in the laboratory.
Some start with a synthetic scaffold which is then seeded with a patient's own cells and implanted. There are some patients who have had new bladders built in this way.
Living scaffold A "living scaffold" made by electrospinning
Another technique has been to take a body part from a dead body, just like an organ transplant, and use a detergent to strip out the native cells leaving a protein scaffold behind. This is then seeded with the target patient's cells. New windpipes have been made through this process.
Spinning
The team at the University College London are using "electrospinning" technology to produce organs. They think it will overcome some of the challenges of seeding a scaffold by building the cells into the transplant in the first place.
It starts with a broth of cells and polymer. A 10,000 volt electric needle is then used to draw out a fibre.
Dr Suwan Jayasinghe told the BBC: "Like a spider weaves its web we are able to draw out this continuous fibre of polymer and cells and weave a web.
Biphasic electrical stimulation: A strategy may bring hope to spinal cord injury patientsResearchers at the Beihang University School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, led by Dr. Yubo Fan, have discovered that Biphasic Electrical stimulation (BES), a non-chemical procedure, may be used as a strategy for preventing cell apoptosis in stem cell-based transplantation therapy. The article describing their studies will be published in the August 2013 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine. The scientists believe that their technique will be used for spinal cord injury patients in the future.
Health and science reporter, BBC News
A new way of screening for ovarian cancer is showing "potential", according to researchers in the US.
Tumours in the ovaries are hard to detect in the earliest stages meaning it can be too late to treat them effectively by the time they are found.
A trial of 4,051 women, reported in the journal Cancer, showed the method could identify those needing treatment.
But a huge study taking place in the UK will give a final verdict on the test when it is completed in 2015.
There is a survival rate of up to 90% when ovarian cancer is caught early, compared with less than 30% if it is discovered in the later stages.
Unlike other cancers, the symptoms, such as pelvic and abdominal pain or persistent bloating, are often put down to other common ailments and the tumour can be missed.
Read more at: Scientists report breakthrough in DNA editing technologyScientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to apply a powerful new DNA-editing technology more broadly than ever before.
"This is one of the hottest tools in biology, and we've now found a way to target it to any DNA sequence," said Carlos F. Barbas III, the Janet and Keith Kellogg II Chair in Molecular Biology and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at TSRI.
The breakthrough concerns a set of designer DNA-binding proteins called TALEs, which biologists increasingly use to turn on, turn off, delete, insert or even rewrite specific genes within cells—for scientific experiments and also for potential biotech and medical applications, including treatments for genetic diseases.
.Each year, millions of people in the United States get a tuberculosis skin test to see if they have the infection that still affects one third of the world's population. But the standard diagnostic test is difficult to give, because a hypodermic needle must be inserted at a precise angle and depth in the arm to successfully check for tuberculosis
Now, a team led by University of Washington engineers has created a patch with tiny, biodegradable needles that can penetrate the skin and precisely deliver a tuberculosis test. The researchers published their results online Aug. 26 in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.
"With a microneedle test there's little room for user error, because the depth of delivery is determined by the microneedle length rather than the needle-insertion angle," said senior author Marco Rolandi, a UW assistant professor of materials science and engineering. "This test is painless and easier to administer than the traditional skin test with a hypodermic needle."
By using raw data from Multi Slice Computerized Tomography (MSCT) and processing it through sophisticated software on high performance computer systems, Malaysian entrepreneur Mathavan (Matt) Chandran hopes to largely negate the need to slice open bodies at autopsy. His digital autopsy software exploits the power of existing 2D and 3D imaging and visualization equipment to observe and investigate the human body using high definition imagery.
Aug. 27, 2013 — University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of a fellow researcher.
BBC News - Miniature 'human brain' grown in labMiniature "human brains" have been grown in a lab in a feat scientists hope will transform the understanding of neurological disorders.
The pea-sized structures reached the same level of development as in a nine-week-old foetus, but are incapable of thought.
The study, published in the journal Nature, has already been used to gain insight into rare diseases.
Scientists have found a compelling clue to what causes age-related memory problems, and to a way of one day differentiating whether those misplaced car keys are just a senior moment or an early warning of something worse.
Wednesday's report offers evidence that age-related memory loss really is a distinct condition from pre-Alzheimer's -- and offers a hint that what we now consider the normal forgetfulness of old age might eventually be treatable.
"You know not every band that comes from Liverpool becomes The Beatles," Dr. Scott Small, a professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center and a senior author of the study, told CBS News. "And most of our studies fail. So this is the one that worked."
Small and other researchers at Columbia University Medical Center examined brains, young and old ones, donated from people who died without signs of neurologic disease. They discovered that a certain gene in a specific part of the hippocampus, the brain's memory center, quits working properly in older people. It produces less of a key protein called RbAp48
When a beating heart slips into an irregular, life-threatening rhythm, the treatment is well known: deliver a burst of electric current from a pacemaker or defibrillator. But because the electricity itself can cause pain, tissue damage and other serious side-effects, a Johns Hopkins-led research team wants to replace these jolts with a kinder, gentler remedy: light. In a paper published Aug. 28 in the online journal Nature Communications, five biomedical engineers from Johns Hopkins and Stony Brook universities described their plan to use biological lab data and an intricate computer model to devise a better way to heal ailing hearts. Other scientists are already using light-sensitive cells to control certain activities in the brain. The Johns Hopkins-Stony Brook researchers say they plan to give this technique a cardiac twist so that doctors in the near future will be able to use low-energy light to solve serious heart problems such as arrhythmia.
Read more at: New sensor for SERS Raman spectroscopy almost as sensitive as a dog's noseUsing carbon nanotubes, a research team led by Professor Hyung Gyu Park in collaboration with Dr. Tiziana Bond has developed a sensor that greatly amplifies the sensitivity of commonly used but typically weak vibrational spectroscopic methods, such as Raman spectroscopy. This type of sensor makes it possible to detect molecules present in the tiniest of concentrations.
Scientists at ETH Zurich and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California have developed an innovative sensor for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Thanks to its unique surface properties at nanoscale, the method can be used to perform analyses that are more reliable, sensitive and cost-effective. In experiments with the new sensor, the researchers were able to detect a certain organic species (1,2bis(4-pyridyl)ethylene, or BPE) in a concentration of a few hundred femtomoles per litre. A 100 femtomolar solution contains around 60 million molecules per liter.
Eating more fruit, particularly blueberries, apples and grapes, is linked to a reduced risk of developing type-2 diabetes, suggests a study in the British Medical Journal.
Blueberries cut the risk by 26% compared with 2% for three servings of any whole fruit - but fruit juice did not appear to have the same effect.
The research looked at the diets of more than 187,000 people in the US.
But Diabetes UK said the results of the study should be treated with caution.
Although recent studies have shown that most Americans aren't entirely fond of the idea of immortality, it's probably a good bet that they still wouldn't mind extending their lifespans by 10-15 years. If researchers at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) have their way, that wish could become a reality. These scientists have successfully extended the lives of mice by changing a single gene.
In the study, scientists used gene expression, which is taking information from a gene to synthesize a gene product, typically a protein. The mice involved in the study were engineered to produce only 25% of the normal amount of the protein from the mTOR gene, which scientists believe controls metabolism and energy levels. The engineered mice grew up smaller than their peers, but their lifespans increased by nearly 20 percent, the longest lifespan increase ever seen in mice. In humans, an increased lifespan of 20% would raise the average lifespan by about 15-16 years.
LONDON: Scientists have discovered that an old cancer drug can be used to prevent rejection of transplanted tissue.
Researchers at Lund University believe their discovery could lead to new treatments for both transplant patients and those with autoimmune diseases.
"Our group was studying the effects of the old tumour drug Zebularine, developed in the US in the 1960s, and by chance we discovered that it had completely unexpected effects on the immune system," said Leif Salford, senior professor of neurosurgery at the Rausing Laboratory, Lund University.
Increased caffeine intake may reduce fatty liver in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, according to a group of researchers led by Dr Paul Yen from the Duke University Medical Center.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is the major cause of fatty liver not due to excessive alcohol consumption. Currently there are no effective treatments for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease except diet and exercise.
Scientists develop two-drug combo pill to treat HIV - The Times of IndiaWASHINGTON: Scientists have developed a new delivery system for a combination of two HIV drugs that may serve as an effective treatment for the deadly virus. The discovery, which allows for a combination of decitabine and gemcitabine to be delivered in pill form, marks a major step forward in patient feasibility for the drugs, which previously had been available solely via injection or intravenous therapy (IV), researchers said.
High dose statins may prevent dementia - The Times of IndiaLONDON: High doses of statins may prevent dementia in older age, a new research has claimed.
The study of nearly 58,000 patients found that high potency statins had the strongest protective effects against dementia.
Researchers examined whether statin use was associated with new diagnoses of dementia. They used a random sample of one million patients covered by Taiwan's National Health Insurance.
They identified 57,669 patients aged more than 65 years who had no history of dementia in 1997 and 1998. The analysis included pre-senile and senile dementia but excluded vascular dementia.
Read more at: Water found to be an ideal lubricant for nanomachinesResearchers from the University of Amsterdam have discovered that machines just one molecule in size move far quicker if you add a 'lubricant' to their surroundings. To their surprise, water proved to be the best lubricant by far. The research will be published on 1 September 2013 in Nature Chemistry.
