The Wistar Institute, along with partners Penn Medicine and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announce that the FDA has approved the initiation of a first-in-human clinical trial investigating the safety and tolerability of a novel synthetic DNA-encoded monoclonal antibody (DMAb) therapeutic technology for the prevention of Zika virus infection. DMAb therapeutic technology is unlike all known conventional...
Tag: <span>DNA</span>
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Bio-Inspired Material Interacts with Surrounding Tissue to Promote Healing
A research team from Imperial College London, led by Dr Ben Almquist, has developed a new molecule based on so-called traction force-activated payloads (TrAPs) which allow materials to talk to the body‘s natural repair systems and thereby activate healing processes. “Creatures from sea sponges to humans use cell movement to activate healing. Our approach mimics...
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CRISPR joins battle of the bulge, fights obesity without edits to genome
A weighty new study shows that CRISPR therapies can cut fat without cutting DNA. In a paper published Dec. 13, 2018, in the journal Science, UC San Francisco researchers describe how a modified version of CRISPR was used to ramp up the activity of certain genes and prevent severe obesity in mice with genetic mutations that...
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Scientists cut main heart disease risk locus out of DNA by genome editing
Microscopy image showing vascular smooth muscular cells made from blood-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. The Scripps Research team found that a deleting genetic risk factor for coronary artery disease rescued the health of these cells. Credit: Baldwin lab/Scripps Research Over the past decade we’ve learned that billions of people carry a mysterious specter in their...
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Longevity is NOT genetic: Study of 400 million people reveals DNA has barely any impact on how long you will live
We used to think that genetics accounted for some 15-30 percent of life expectancy Genes do influence our risks of many health concerns and disease like cancer But a new study of Ancestry.com family tree data on 400 million people shows that lifespan is less inherited than we thought Scientists at the Genetics Society of America believe that lifespans that...
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ATR inhibitors: destroying DNA
Analysis of an anti-cancer drug in clinical trials reveals a previously unknown effect on DNA that could contribute to its potency. Recent research aiming to establish biomarkers that could indicate the most effective course of therapy for a variety of cancers, which was conducted at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (PA, USA)...
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Pathogens may evade immune response with metal-free enzyme required for DNA replication
Some bacterial pathogens, including those that cause strep throat and pneumonia, are able to create the components necessary to replicate their DNA without the usually required metal ions. This process may allow infectious bacteria to replicate even when the host’s immune system sequesters iron and manganese ions in an attempt to slow pathogen replication. A new study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National...
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Diseased heart muscle cells have abnormally shortened telomeres, researchers find
People with a form of heart disease called cardiomyopathy have abnormally short telomeres in heart muscle cells responsible for contraction, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Human chromosomes (grey) capped by telomeres (white). Credit: PD-NASA; PD-USGOV-NASA A telomere is a DNA sequence that serves as a protective cap on the ends...
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CRISPR Study Shows Cas12a May Select DNA Target Sequences More Precisely Than Cas9
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The Cas9 enzyme is known to have certain problems with binding to off-target DNA sequences, but for the most part, it is still considered to be the gold standard CRISPR enzyme for genome editing. However, in a new study in Molecular Cell today, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin...
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High-throughput flow cytometry in drug discovery
SLAS (SOCIETY FOR LABORATORY AUTOMATION AND SCREENING) A new special issue of SLAS Discovery reflects examples of the recent groundswell of creative new applications for high-throughput flow cytometry (HTFC) in drug discovery. IMAGE: HIGH-THROUGHPUT FLOW CYTOMETRY IN DRUG DISCOVERY. Led by guest editors Mei Ding, Ph.D. (AstraZeneca) and Bruce S. Edwards, Ph.D. (University of New Mexico),...