Human Embryo Clone Survives 8 Divisions
A new paper published in the journal Cell shares the work of a group of researchers in Oregon who have grown a human clone — at least up to a couple hundred cells. Given the nature of some of the manipulations involved, and the constitution of the resultant cell mass, it is not realistic to imagine that the amalgam they created would ever develop much beyond the stage they present.
They therefore do not call their achievement an “embryo” as such. The intended use of this finely-tuned cell bank is rather to provide personalized stem cell resources to those who have already wrought for themselves a conscious form, and wish to forestall its untimely dissolution.
Nanoparticle Disguised as a Blood Cell Fights Bacterial Infections
The “nanosponges” work by targeting so-called pore-forming toxins, which kill cells by poking holes in them.
One of the most common classes of protein toxins in nature, pore-forming toxins are secreted by many types of bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, of which antibiotic-resistant strains, called MRSA, are endemic in hospitals worldwide and cause tens of thousands of deaths annually. They are also present in many types of animal venom.
There are a range of existing therapies designed to target the molecular structure of pore-forming toxins and disable their cell-killing functions. But they must be customized for different diseases and conditions, and there are over 80 families of these harmful proteins, each with a different structure.
Using the new nanosponge therapy, says Zhang, “we can neutralize every single one, regardless of their molecular structure.”
Zhang and his colleagues wrapped real red blood cell membranes around biocompatible polymeric nanoparticles. A single red blood cell supplies enough membrane material to produce over 3,000 nanosponges, each around 85 nanometers (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter) in diameter.
Since red blood cells are a primary target of pore-forming toxins, the nanosponges act as decoys once in the bloodstream, absorbing the damaging proteins and neutralizing their toxicity. And because they are so small, the nanosponges will vastly outnumber the real red blood cells in the system, says Zhang. This means they have a much higher chance of interacting with and absorbing toxins, and thus can divert the toxins away from their natural targets.
Researchers Build Complex 3D Nano Structures Out of DNA By Manipulating How Strands Join
“We were amazed that it worked!” said Yan. “Once we saw that it actually worked, it was relatively easy to implement new designs. Now it seems easy in hindsight. If your mindset is limited by the conventional rules, it’s really hard to take the next step. Once you take that step, it becomes so obvious.”
The DNA Gridiron designs are programmed into a viral DNA, where a spaghetti-shaped single strand of DNA is spit out and folded together with the help of small ‘staple’ strands of DNA that help mold the final DNA structure. In a test tube, the mixture is heated, then rapidly cooled, and everything self-assembles and molds into the final shape once cooled.
Next, using sophisticated AFM and TEM imaging technology, they are able to examine the shapes and sizes of the final products and determine that they had formed correctly.
This approach has allowed them to build multilayered, 3-D structures and curved objects for new applications. “Most of our research team is now devoted toward finding new applications for this basic toolkit we are making,” said Yan. “There is still a long way to go and a lot of new ideas to explore. We just need to keep talking to biologists, physicists and engineers to understand and meet their needs.”
“Replacement” Material Synthesized to 3D Print Artificial Human Tissue
Water and fat — those are the two primary building blocks Oxford University researchers have used to 3D print the droplet you see above. Sounds unremarkable until you consider its intended application as a human tissue replacement. By stringing together thousands of these so-called droplets (which measure about 50 microns across) using a custom-built 3D printer, the Oxford team believes it has engineered a “new type of material” that could eventually be used to ferry drugs throughout our internal systems to a specific target site, fill-in for damaged tissues or even mimic neural pathways via specially printed protein pores. The potential applications for medical science are impressive enough, but consider this additional benefit: since the droplets contain no genetic material, scientists can completely sidestep all the ethical red tape surrounding the alternative stem cell approach to artificial tissue. At present, the team’s been able to string about 35,000 of the droplets together, but there’s no real cap as to how large or even what type of networks can be made.
(via Oxford University researchers create new 3D printed ‘soft material’ that could replace human tissue)
Genetic Copyrights: You Do Not Own Your Own Genome
On the surface, genetic copyright in just another form of the classic problem: Can we better afford to deal with the pricing that results from strong biomedical patents, or with the lack of innovations that may result from their prohibition?
This is one of the main problems facing the drug industry, which sees the vast majority of new medications developed by companies that, arguably, gouge customers in their most desperate times. We’re often presented with a dichotomy — do we want poor sick people, or dead sick people?
Yet, this study represents a growing movement within biomedical research, one aimed at changing the way we treat biological products. Traditionally, one could patent “anything under the sun that is made by man”, which would seem to exclude biological patents, but American and European patent authorities accept them by the thousands.
(via Do you own your genes, or can Big Pharma patent them? | ExtremeTech)
Carbon Nanotubes Used in Scaffolds to Grow Working Rat Hearts
Heart cells share many of the problems of neurons, from a research perspective; they are woefully inept at directing their own growth through space, requiring virtually every effort be made on their behalf, and even when led to the right place require all sorts of special genetic and chemical allowances. It was once thought impossible to regrow neurons, but lately we’ve come to realize that it’s just very, very finicky. Not the least of the reasons for this is conductivity; neurons cannot work unless they somehow come to meet one another such that an electrical signal can propagate between them. Heart cells are much the same — a cluster of so-called pacemaker cells keeps the whole thing contracting as one. This requires not just that the pacemaker signal pass between the cells, but that it happens fast enough for the heart to act seemingly as one coordinated unit.
In pursuit of this, the heart has a class of myocytes that form Purkinje Fibers, long cords that ferry pacemaker signals at a rate unsurpassed in the body. When a contraction signal leaves the pacemaking cells, its order reaches the furthest cells in the heart at an imperceptibly short time after it reaches the closest ones, and so the heart cells seem to beat as one. This ability is absolutely essential to a working heart, and has proven very difficult for organ transplant researchers to overcome.
Enter carbon nanotubes. As anyone familiar with the little critters will know, their important feature is a combination of strength, flexibility, and conductivity. Some combination of these virtues has made them of import to virtually every advanced research and manufacturing sector, from space elevators to flexible computers. Now, we must add conductive tissue development to that quickly growing list. By laying the conductive carbon nanotubes coated with a growth medium, researchers were able to create a scaffold that mimicked the utility of the Purkinje Fibers. By coating the scaffold in rat cardiomyocytes, they were able to create a colony of heart cells capable of contracting properly.
(via Carbon nanotubes make it possible to grow human hearts | ExtremeTech)
Gene Therapy Cures Diabetes in Dogs in SIngle Treatment
Five lucky diabetic beagles have been cured of their canine type 1 diabetes using gene therapy, according to research published in the February issue of Diabetes.
Researchers from Barcelona’s Universitat Autonoma previously found the therapy effective in treating mice, but this is the first time gene therapy — when a patient’s DNA is supplemented or changed to treat a disease — has proven successful in curing diabetes in large animals.
Gene therapy encodes a functional gene to replace a mutated one, or inserts DNA that produces a therapeutic protein to treat a disease. In this case, the dogs were injected with two extra genes that together form a “glucose sensor” that can regulate glucose uptake and reduce excessive glucose levels in the blood.
Four years later, the dogs that received both genes had no symptoms of diabetes and stabilized glucose levels. They recovered a normal body weight and didn’t exhibit any secondary complications.
(via Gene Therapy Cures Diabetic Dogs In Only One Shot | Popular Science)
Scientists Perform Logic Functions Using DNA Within Living Cells
By modifying a genetic toggle switch, synthetic biologists at MIT have found a way to perform logic functions inside of living cells.
Based on plasmids, circular strings of DNA, scientists devised and inserted 16 different DNA strings into Escherichia coli cells, one for each of the binary logic functions allowable in computation.
“The key to the system is the use of recombinase enzymes, which cut and rearrange promoter and terminator DNA sequences to turn them on or off. In other words, recombinase enzymes are the inputs that determine whether the output gene is transcribed.”
(via Scientists Turn Cells into Living Computers | IdeaFeed | Big Think)
Researchers Embed Light-Emitting Probe into Single Living Cancer Cell, Successfully Track it for Eight Days
This nanoprobe could be an important breakthrough for photonic cancer therapy. The researchers suggest that it could be used to develop patient-specific cancer therapies, where an individual’s treatment could be tailored to their own genetic needs.
The probe can be used to detect specific proteins within the cell, and could be developed to sense DNA or RNA. When coated in molecules or antibodies that attract the desired protein, any of that protein within a cell will cling to the nanobeam like iron to a magnet, causing a shift in the wavelength of light it emits. This could be used in drug testing to see immediately if a drug is producing or inhibiting a certain protein.
“Devices like the photonic cavities we have built are quite possibly the most diverse and customizable ingredients in photonics,” senior author Jelena Vuckovic explained. “Applications span from fundamental physics to nanolasers and biosensors that could have profound impact on biological research.”
(via Scientists Insert A Light-Emitting Bioprobe Into A Living Cell | Popular Science)
How Neuroscience Will Fight Five Age-Old Afflictions
New Electronic and viral treatments for seizures, dementia, blindness, paralysis and deafness.
(via How Neuroscience Will Fight Five Age-Old Afflictions | Popular Science)
