The ultimate goal of genome editing is to be able to make any specific change to the blueprint of life. A ‘search-and-replace’ method for genome editing takes us a giant leap closer to this ambitious goal. Randall J. Platt Variation in the DNA sequences that constitute the blueprint of life is essential to the fitness...
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New AI Model Tries to Synthesize Patient Data Like Doctors Do
PNNL incorporates information of over 300,000 medical concepts, more than any existing AI data set, in effort to aid physicians’ diagnoses Artificial intelligence will never replace a doctor. However, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have taken a big step toward the day when AI can help physicians predict medical events....
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New understanding of antibiotic synthesis
Researchers at McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine have made important strides in understanding the functioning of enzymes that play an integral role in the production of antibiotics and other therapeutics. Their findings are published in Science. “Many of the medicines that we rely on today are natural products, made by the Earth’s flora,” explains Dr....
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Estrogen as a Treatment for Parkinson’s Disease
By Osman Shabir, M.Sc. | Reviewed by Dr. Jennifer Logan, MD, MPH Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder clinically characterized by dyskinesia (impairment of movement), resting tremor, bradykinesia (slow movements), dystonia (stiffness of muscles including facial muscles), a stooped posture, drooling, sexual and urinary dysfunction, and in some cases psychiatric symptoms including psychosis, dementia, and depression....
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Anthrax may be an unlikely ally against bladder cancer
By Michael Irving If movies have taught us anything, it’s that sometimes to fight one villain, you have to team up with another. Medical science occasionally follows the same logic and in the latest example, researchers have turned to anthrax as an unlikely ally in the fight against bladder cancer, with promising results in animal...
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Phage therapy shows promise for treating alcoholic liver disease
KING’S COLLEGE LONDON A team of researchers including those from King’s College London and the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, have for the first time successfully applied bacteriophage (phage) therapy in mice to alcohol-related liver disease. Phages are viruses that specifically destroy bacteria. In a paper published today in Nature, the team...
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Precisely poking cells en masse to cure cancer
Device can mass-produce engineered cells at lower cost, a tipping point for emerging lifesaving therapies UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – RIVERSIDE What if you could cure cancer by re-engineering patients’ cells to better target and destroy their own tumors? With the advent of powerful new cellular engineering technologies, this is no longer the stuff of science...
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A new facial analysis method detects genetic syndromes with high precision and specificity
Developed by Araceli Morales, Gemma Piella and Federico Sukno, members of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies, together with researchers from the University of Washington UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA – BARCELONA Each year, over a million children are born with a genetic disease. Although about half of genetic syndromes present facial dysmorphology, abnormal facial features...
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Forget the Chardonnay, pass me the grape stems: Anti-tumor activity in prostate cancer cells
by Shinshu University Grape stems are discarded en masse during the production of wine. We love and produce a lot of wine in Nagano prefecture, and have been hoping to find a positive use for the previously discarded grape stems. Scientists at Shinshu University studied compounds within grape stem extracts and found significant anti-cancer activity...
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Blocking a survival mechanism could tackle melanoma treatment resistance
CANCER RESEARCH UK The effectiveness of current treatments for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, could be improved by using approaches that wipe out the ‘survival system’ of cancer cells according to a study published in Nature Communications today.* Researchers from the Babraham Institute, AstraZeneca and the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre have demonstrated...