Elie Dolgin's Research

To climb trees, cicadas look to the shadows

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:34:06 GMT

A shadow-sensing skill known as skototaxis helps cicadas find trees to molt on.

Read at Science News .

Digital heart twins can guide a lifesaving procedure

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:11:34 GMT

In a small trial, the simulation pinpoints the source of faulty beats and speeds procedure time.

Read at Science News .

The Amazon molly — a sex-skipping fish — hacks evolution

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:15:09 GMT

The fish keeps harmful mutations at bay with a DNA repair trick.

Read at Science News .

Entomologists use a particle accelerator to image ants at scale

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:38:23 GMT

The detailed scans could inspire robots and biomechanical designs.

Move over, Pixar. The ants that animators once morphed into googly-eyed caricatures in films such as A Bug’s Life and Antz just received a meticulously precise anatomical reboot.

Writing today in Nature Methods, an international team of entomologists, accelerator physicists, computer scientists, and biological-imaging specialists describe a new 3D atlas of ant morphology.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Tech is taking over Olympic curling

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 19:41:08 GMT

But the rise of robots and AI may disrupt the sport’s ethos.

At this year’s Winter Olympics in Italy, the controversy began with a fingertip.

A disputed double-touch—whether a curler had brushed a moving stone twice—sparked protests, profanity-laced exchanges, and heated debate about sportsmanship. In a game that prides itself on mutual trust and the idea of competition as a shared test of skill, even the suggestion of impropriety can ripple far beyond a single end.

But if a double-touch can shake the sport, what happens when the controversy isn’t about a fingertip but an algorithm?

That’s the question shadowing the rise of analytics driven by machine learning and a new breed of AI-powered robots that can throw stones, read the ice, and calculate strategy with machine precision.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Into the deep

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 19:01:10 GMT

As humans return to the Moon, researchers are trying to understand—and thwart—the biological toll of deep-space radiation.

Jeremy Hansen has spent years preparing for the moment he will leave Earth behind—and become one of the first astronauts in more than 50 years to venture beyond low-Earth orbit.

In case of mishaps in deep space, Hansen has simulated countless spacecraft accidents. To practice teamwork in a harsh environment, he lived for a week deep underground in an Italian cave. And to rehearse the mental strain of life in close confinement, he spent days submerged in a capsule off the coast of Florida.

But there is one hazard Hansen can’t prepare for: space radiation.

Continue reading at Science .

The Sea Lions of the Galápagos Are Not Ready to Stop Nursing

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 16:12:38 GMT

Animals that researchers call “supersucklers” come back for their mother’s milk even after they can hunt, mate and fend for themselves.

Read at The New York Times .

New device could keep weight off after GLP-1 drugs

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 15:23:42 GMT

Destroying dysfunctional tissue could reset metabolism.

Christina had tried dieting and exercise before. The weight always came off but then crept back on, especially after she gave birth to her son in 2022.

She had hoped that a new class of weight-loss drugs might finally offer something different. Obesity treatments such as Wegovy and Zepbound had just arrived on the scene, helping people slim down with unprecedented ease. But the price tag of these GLP-1 drugs put them out of reach. Christina’s health insurance wouldn’t cover the cost.

Desperate for another option, Christina enrolled in a clinical trial that guaranteed several months on a blockbuster weight-loss therapy—and then the possibility of something more. (Christina, a Texas woman in her early 50s, asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy about her weight-loss treatment.)

That something more wasn’t another injection or pill, but a one-time procedure using a new medical device. And instead of targeting the stomach or brain, it focused on the gut itself: rewiring how a part of the upper intestine, known as the duodenum, processes nutrients and regulates metabolism.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Sarah Tabrizi: Huntington’s hero

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 16:26:39 GMT

This neurologist is leading clinical efforts to treat the devastating brain disease.

On a video call in early September, Sarah Tabrizi first saw the data that she and other researchers studying Huntington’s disease had been chasing for decades: compelling evidence that a gene-targeting therapy could slow the relentless progression of the neurodegenerative brain disorder.

Before these results, “I was beginning to get a little bit worried that maybe, by the time people develop symptoms, that it was going to be too late to treat”, says Tabrizi, a neurologist who directs the Huntington’s Disease Centre at University College London. But here was powerful validation that the window for treating the rare, hereditary condition remains open — offering a chance for meaningful, disease-modifying interventions.

“It’s a giant step forward,” says Tabrizi, who was the trial’s lead scientific adviser. “The dial has been shifted.”

Continue readi ng at Nature .

Lions have a second roar that no one noticed until now

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 14:19:26 GMT

A closer listen to lion calls may help map where the big cat is under threat.

Read at Science News .

A wolf raided a crab trap. Was it tool use or just canine cunning?

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 18:24:03 GMT

Scientists remain split on whether rope-pulling ingenuity counts as tool use.

One damp spring evening last year, a wolf hauled a crab trap ashore off the central Pacific coast of British Columbia. The rangy animal made a delectable meal of the bait inside, and unknowingly launched a healthy debate about her feat.

The gray wolf ( Canis lupus ) had been recorded on a motion-triggered camera installed by environmental wardens — known as Guardians — from the Haíɫzaqv Nation Indigenous community. The wolf’s trap-pulling behavior may be the first evidence of tool use by a wild canid, researchers report November 17 in Ecology and Evolution .

Continue reading at Science News .

Toronto’s Subway Deer Enigma Unmasked With DNA Analysis

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:00:56 GMT

It took nearly 50 years to work out the identity of a caribou-like fossil first discovered by construction workers.

In 1976, as jackhammers and backhoes carved a subway tunnel through the glacial clays beneath Canada’s largest city, construction crews unearthed a surprise: the partial skull and antlers of a mysterious prehistoric deer.

The fossil, lifted from an excavation pit near Islington Station on Toronto’s western edge, bore antler beams so thick and oddly horizontal that no scientist could match them to a living species. Eventually some paleontologists named it Torontoceros hypogaeus, meaning “horned Toronto deer from underground.” More commonly, it was called the Toronto Subway Deer.

But the specimen, estimated to be at least 11,000 years old, set off decades of debate. Was this animal a strange relative of caribou? Or evidence of an altogether different deer that hit an evolutionary dead end?

After nearly 50 years, the deer has given up its secrets.

Continue reading at The New York Times .

Google’s AI co-scientist scores two wins in biology

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 15:17:46 GMT

Language model delivers predictions that rival years of lab work.

Hey Google! What if, instead of setting reminders or fetching restaurant reviews, you helped crack the mysteries of biology?

That playful question hints at a radical vision now being tested in labs. AI systems are being recast not as digital secretaries, but as scientific partners — co-pilots built to dream up bold, testable ideas.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Huntington’s disease treated for first time using gene therapy

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 13:44:36 GMT

Preliminary results from a small trial offer the clearest evidence yet that the brain disease’s progression can be slowed.

A one-time gene therapy can markedly slow the progression of Huntington’s disease, potentially paving the way for the first ever treatment to alter the course of this rare, inherited brain disorder.

Continue reading at Nature .

RFK Jr cancelled mRNA research — but the US military is still funding it

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 15:00:57 GMT

The Department of Defense is continuing to bankroll projects to develop vaccines against deadly pathogens.

The abrupt termination last month of nearly half a billion dollars in US government contracts for mRNA-vaccine research rattled scientists working inside and outside industry. The cuts raised alarm about the country’s commitment to the Nobel-prizewinning technology, which is credited with saving millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic and is regarded as essential for fighting viruses in the future.

Yet not all large-scale research into mRNA vaccines in the United States is being dismantled. Nature has learnt that, even as the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — led by vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr — pulls back, the country’s military continues to bankroll parts of the same research.

Continue reading at Nature .

How epigenetics could help save wildlife from collapse

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 14:47:02 GMT

Molecular signatures of aging are changing how conservationists assess population health, resilience and risk.

Read at Knowable Magazine .

Weird rings of DNA fuel cancers

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 20:26:07 GMT

Paul Mischel is championing the importance of odd rings of DNA in tumors — and their promise as targets for cancer therapy.

When Paul Mischel started his lab in the late 1990s, the rules of cancer biology seemed straightforward and solutions finally within reach.

A wave of targeted therapies was taking shape. For the first time, it seemed possible to design drugs that didn’t just carpet-bomb tumors—with healthy tissue as collateral damage—but struck only malignant cells, taking aim at the precise mutations fueling their growth.

In glioblastoma, the lethal brain cancer Mischel had set out to understand and subdue, the target appeared obvious: a gene, encoding a cell surface protein called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), that was amped up to unusually high levels in nearly half of all cases by extra copies found within tumor cells.

It was a vulnerability seemingly ripe for exploitation, as drugs designed to block EGFR’s growth signals were just entering the research pipeline. Yet trial after trial of these EGFR-targeted agents produced the same disappointing result: Brain tumors barely flinched in the face of this precision attack.

Mischel dug into the problem the way any clinician-scientist might approach a puzzling case: cell by cell, sample by sample, refusing to take the tumor’s resilience at face value. What he found would reveal a hidden layer of genomic architecture in cancer, one that enables tumors to flout the rules of evolution. The findings would open up an entirely new frontier in anticancer drug discovery.

Continue reading at Science .

Gene therapy marks a turning point for rare skin diseases

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 14:14:41 GMT

Fresh treatments shift the focus from symptom management to repair.

Read at Nature Outlook .

Superbugs meet their match in generative AI-designed drugs

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 14:20:19 GMT

Smart algorithms take aim at antimicrobial resistance.

Some today fear that artificial intelligence will one day destroy humanity. But if the rise of the machines doesn’t get us, drug-resistant bacteria just might. These microscopic killers already claim millions of lives each year worldwide, and the world’s arsenal of effective antibiotics is dwindling.

But could one threat be trained perhaps to help stave off the other? A study published today in the journal Cell certainly suggests the possibility. A team led by Jim Collins, MIT professor of biological engineering, showed how generative AI algorithms trained on vast datasets of antibacterial substances could dream up millions of previously unimagined molecules with predicted microbe-killing power—some of which proved potent in mouse experiments.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Next-gen brain implants offer new hope for depression

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:51:57 GMT

AI and real-time neural feedback could transform treatments.

Her relapse into depression felt like defeat—but it offered vital clues to achieving lasting psychiatric relief.

The 67-year-old woman from Alabama had already endured four major depressive episodes in her decades-long battle with mental illness. After exhausting numerous medications and other therapies, in 2015 she turned to an experimental last resort: deep brain stimulation, or DBS.

Neurosurgeons implanted electrodes a few inches below her skull, targeting a small bundle of neural fibers in a brain region behind the forehead that acts as a crucial hub for mood regulation. Thin wires connected the electrodes to a pulse generator discreetly inserted in her upper chest. Once activated, the device delivered a steady stream of high-frequency electricity, gently buzzing the targeted circuits to disrupt maladaptive patterns and, like a pacemaker for the brain, restore a healthier balance of neural activity.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Art restoration gets a high-tech makeover

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:25:09 GMT

Pixels meet paint, as a digital “mask” conceals damage on a 15th-century painting.

Masterpieces like The Mona Lisa or The Coronation of Napoleon are admired by tens of thousands of visitors to the Louvre each day. Yet, deep within the Paris museum’s vaults lie thousands more works of art that—whether due to space limitations, conservation requirements, or scarce restoration resources—never make it onto the walls of the world’s most famous art institution.

A new restoration technique that bridges digital innovation and traditional art care aims to change that.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

How to keep weight off after obesity drugs

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 12:27:11 GMT

Options are emerging for the tens of millions of people who stop taking GLP-1 drugs because of side effects, cost or availability.

Read at Nature .

Flamingos create precise water vortices in a shrimp-hunting frenzy

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 16:05:32 GMT

Vortex creation in filter feeding animals is rare.

Tornado-generating beaks and whirlpool-stirring feet help flamingos transform shallow waters into shrimp-swirling death zones — corralling agile prey with the flair of a Las Vegas stage act and the efficiency of a Dyson vacuum.

That’s the takeaway from a study published May 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that combined high-speed video, fluid dynamics experiments and 3-D-printed flamingo parts to reveal the mechanics behind the birds’ underwater feeding frenzies.

Continue reading at Science News .

This e-tattoo for your face gauges mental strain

Thu, 29 May 2025 15:45:00 GMT

It’s like a mood ring — on your forehead!

Feeling stressed? Overworked? A new forehead-mounted electronic tattoo may soon offer real-time insights into your mental state.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a wireless, ultra-thin, wearable device that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo and monitors brain signals and eye movements to gauge mental strain.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Your next password could be stored in plastic

Wed, 21 May 2025 15:49:11 GMT

Researchers encode data in tiny custom-built plastics.

Forget cloud storage. Scientists can now save data in plastic—storing digital information in short-chain polymers, and reading it back with electricity.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Powerful CRISPR system inserts whole gene into human DNA

Thu, 15 May 2025 18:53:55 GMT

‘Directed’ evolution in the laboratory creates an editing tool that outperforms classic CRISPR systems.

Read at Nature .

Brain tissues, assemble! Inside the push to build better brain models

Wed, 14 May 2025 14:24:53 GMT

With organoids, assembloids and a growing bioengineering toolkit, scientists are pushing the limits of human brain models.

In the 2015 Pixar film Inside Out , a young girl’s mind is brought vividly and hilariously to life through a cast of animated archetypes, each representing a distinct facet of emotion or thought. The brain, in this portrayal, is a modular structure, composed of interlocking yet discrete parts — a concept that mirrors one of the most advanced models in modern neuroscience.

Over the past decade, researchers have coaxed stem cells to form 3D clusters of neural tissue known as organoids, bathing the cells in carefully formulated chemical cocktails to generate brain regions such as the thalamus, where sensory information is processed, and the striatum, which integrates movement and reward signals.

Initially, efforts focused on isolated, region-specific models. But today, researchers routinely fuse organoids representing distinct brain areas to create unified ‘assembloids’, capable of reconstructing functional neural networks and offering insights into brain connectivity, development and disease. “It has opened a new direction in the field to really understand interactions between different parts of the brain,” says In-Hyun Park, a stem-cell biologist at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

Continue reading at Nature .

How political attacks could crush the mRNA vaccine revolution

Fri, 09 May 2025 16:48:53 GMT

Drug makers are scrambling to navigate an ‘existential threat’ to a once-celebrated technology.

The day after Donald Trump moved back into the White House in January, he celebrated a US$500-billion private-sector investment in artificial intelligence (AI) with a high-profile announcement in the Roosevelt Room. The new president looked on as technology billionaire Larry Ellison highlighted one of the initiative’s most transformative goals: using messenger RNA vaccines to transform cancer treatments.

By harnessing AI to analyse tumour genetics, Ellison explained, researchers could rapidly design personalized vaccines tailored to an individual’s cancer. “This is the promise of AI and the promise of the future,” he said.

Biotechnology executives were elated. Trump had, just five years earlier, propelled mRNA medicines into the spotlight through his signature effort to fast-track the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Now, just one day into his second term, he was once again elevating the technology to the national stage.

“Then the bottom fell out,” says Deborah Day Barbara, co-founder of the Alliance for mRNA Medicines (AMM), a trade group representing more than 75 companies and academic institutions that are advancing mRNA research, development and manufacturing.

Continue reading at Nature .

Bioprinting inside the body, without breaking the skin

Fri, 09 May 2025 12:50:31 GMT

Ultrasound enables minimally invasive 3D-printing of tissues, therapies, and more.

A new technique for 3D-printing soft materials directly inside the body could allow the creation of complex structures deep within tissue—without making a single incision.

The approach, unveiled this week in Science, uses focused ultrasound to sculpt injected “bio-ink” into tissue-like structures, opening the door to minimally invasive applications in cancer therapy, bioelectronics, and regenerative medicine.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

How we taste sweetness: long-sought structure of human receptor mapped at last

Wed, 07 May 2025 17:59:48 GMT

3D structure of the tongue’s sweet-sensing protein could guide future food designs.

Read at Nature .

Faster, cheaper, better: the rise of blood tests for Alzheimer’s

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 13:17:14 GMT

Circulating biomarkers are quickly becoming a crucial part of diagnosis and disease monitoring for physicians, researchers — and even some consumers.

Ellen was on a cycling holiday in September 2023 when her memory and thinking skills began to falter. Riding behind her husband on their bright green tandem bike through the rolling hills of Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, Ellen found herself struggling to follow simple navigation cues.

When she returned home to Missouri, Ellen (who asked that only her middle name be used) underwent a comprehensive evaluation, including a new blood test designed to detect proteins linked to the plaques and tangles in the brain that characterize Alzheimer’s disease. The results confirmed what her friends and family had quietly feared: Ellen was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, a devastating form of dementia that erodes memory and affects millions of people worldwide.

Her clinician quickly prescribed her an antibody therapy designed to impede the disease’s progression. Now, Ellen’s cognitive decline has slowed, and she is looking forward to another tandem cycling adventure this year, ahead of her 71st birthday. “We feel really fortunate,” says her husband. The timely diagnosis, accelerated by the speed and convenience of blood testing, enabled prompt treatment that has given Ellen a chance to maintain her quality of life for longer.

Ellen’s experience highlights the growing promise of blood-based testing for Alzheimer’s.

Continue reading at Nature .

In a first, zebra cams reveal herds on the move with giraffes

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:57:54 GMT

Zebras and giraffes offer one another protection without food competition.

In the opening scene of The Lion King , animals of every stripe, spot and tusk march in unison across the African plains, bound by an unseen thread of connection.

This iconic moment mirrors a natural phenomenon in the wild: zebras forging unlikely alliances with giraffes and traveling as a unified herd.

Continue reading at Science News .

Dozens of new obesity drugs are coming: these are the ones to watch

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 01:05:59 GMT

Next-generation obesity drugs will work differently from Ozempic and Wegovy — aiming to deliver greater weight loss with fewer side effects.

For Kristian Cook, every pizza box he opened was another door closed on the path to overcoming obesity. “I had massive cravings for pizza,” he says. “That was my biggest downfall.”

At 114 kilograms and juggling a daily regimen of medications for high cholesterol, hypertension and gout, the New Zealander resolved to take action. In late 2022, at the age of 46, Cook joined a clinical trial that set out to test a combination of the weight-loss drug semaglutide — better known by its brand names, Ozempic or Wegovy — and an experimental drug designed to preserve muscle while shedding fat.

Muscle loss is a big concern for people on anti-obesity medications such as semaglutide. These ‘GLP-1 agonists’ mimic a natural gut hormone — glucagon-like peptide 1 — to suppress appetite and regulate metabolism. But reducing calories leads to an energy deficit, which the body often makes up for by burning muscle. The experimental drug that Cook received, called bimagrumab, seems to counteract this muscle loss.

It’s one of more than 100 anti-obesity drug candidates that are in various stages of development. The next wave of medications, which are likely to hit pharmacy shelves in the next few years, resemble drugs that are already on the market. But close behind are numerous therapies being developed specifically for their muscle-sparing weight-loss potential. Dozens more are aimed at different biological pathways and could redefine obesity treatment in decades to come.

Continue reading at Nat ure .

AI Reveals Hidden Interior Design Rules of the Cell

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 14:51:54 GMT

A new tool predicts where proteins fit, opening new frontiers in drug discovery.

A new deep-learning model can now predict how proteins sort themselves inside the cell. The model has uncovered a hidden layer of molecular code that shapes biological organization, adding new dimensions of complexity to our understanding of life and offering a powerful biotechnology tool for drug design and discovery.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

US drug agency approves potent painkiller — the first non-opioid in decades

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 15:13:05 GMT

The FDA’s nod for suzetrigine bolsters confidence in the pharmaceutical industry’s strategy to target sodium channels.

When Terp Vairin awoke from a 2023 surgery that straightened a bend in her nasal passage, she felt like she’d taken a hard punch to the nose. As the anaesthetic wore off, she called out for something to ease the pain and was pleasantly surprised. The drug she received — a new kind of analgesic administered as part of a clinical trial — eased her discomfort without the grogginess or nausea of an opioid.

“I felt very lucid,” says Vairin, an artist from Decatur, Georgia.

Now, millions more people will soon have access to this painkiller — a drug called suzetrigine that works by selectively blocking sodium channels on pain-sensing nerve cells and delivers opioid-level pain suppression without the risks of addiction, sedation or overdose. On Thursday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved suzetrigine for short-term pain management, making it the first pain drug given a regulatory nod in more than 20 years that works through a brand-new mechanism.

Continue reading at Nature .

‘Expansion microscopy’ turns ten

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:23:48 GMT

How a tissue-swelling method brought super-resolution imaging to the masses.

A decade in, expansion microscopy is unlocking insights across biology and medicine.

Sluggish proteins may underpin aging and chronic disease

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 15:36:08 GMT

In response to cellular stress, proteins become ensnared in chemical traffic jams, creating a kind of widespread sluggishness scientists call “proteolethargy.”

Read at Science News .

Clams use fiber optics to channel sunlight to symbiotic algae

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 16:16:01 GMT

The first example of fiber optics in nature could light the way for internet innovation.

In a discovery that blurs the line between biology and technology, scientists have found that heart-shaped clams use fiber optic–like structures to channel sunlight through their shells in much the same way that telecommunications company use fiber optics to deliver high-speed internet connectivity into homes.

Continue reading at Science News .

Can flashing lights stall Alzheimer’s? What the science shows

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 14:54:29 GMT

Pulses of light and sound seem to have beneficial effects. But some argue it is too soon to market experimental devices.

Read at Nat ure .

Revolutionary drug for schizophrenia wins US approval

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 12:27:28 GMT

The medication is the first in decades to have a different mode of action than do current drugs, achieving better symptom relief with fewer side effects.

Read at Nature .

How a ‘pain-o-meter’ could improve treatments

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 12:34:10 GMT

Pain is defined subjectively, but an objective measure of the experience promises to transform its management.

Read at Nature Outlook .

A Trojan horse for thirsty tumours

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 12:31:50 GMT

Joining a drug candidate to a protein that malignant cells naturally take up allowed one firm to come up with a potent anti-cancer therapy.

R ead at Nature Outlook .

Radioactive drugs strike cancer with precision

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 17:03:50 GMT

The tumor-seeking radiopharmaceuticals are charting a new course in oncology, with promise for targeted treatments with fewer side effects.

On a Wednesday morning in late January 1896, at a small light bulb factory in Chicago, a middle-aged woman named Rose Lee found herself at the heart of a groundbreaking medical endeavor. With an X-ray tube positioned above the tumor in her left breast, Lee was treated with a torrent of high-energy particles that penetrated into the malignant mass.

“And so,” as her treating clinician later wrote, “without the blaring of trumpets or the beating of drums, X-ray therapy was born.”

Radiation therapy has come a long way since those early beginnings. The discovery of radium and other radioactive metals opened the doors to administering higher doses of radiation to target cancers located deeper within the body. The introduction of proton therapy later made it possible to precisely guide radiation beams to tumors, thus reducing damage to surrounding healthy tissues — a degree of accuracy that was further refined through improvements in medical physics, computer technologies and state-of-the-art imaging techniques.

But it wasn’t until the new millennium, with the arrival of targeted radiopharmaceuticals, that the field achieved a new level of molecular precision. These agents, akin to heat-seeking missiles programmed to hunt down cancer, journey through the bloodstream to deliver their radioactive warheads directly at the tumor site.
Black and white photo shows a woman in a gown with an X-ray tube in front of her. Part of her face is covered in order to direct the X-ray beam to the site of the cancer on her face.

Continue reading at Knowable Magazine .

How personalized cancer vaccines could keep tumours from coming back

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:24:07 GMT

The same mRNA technology that quickly brought the world a vaccine for COVID-19 is now showing promise as a bespoke therapy for cancer.

Read at Nat ure .

A myopia epidemic is sweeping the globe. Here’s how to stop it

Wed, 29 May 2024 12:54:47 GMT

Time spent outdoors is the best defence against rising rates of short-sightedness, but scientists are searching for other ways to reverse the troubling trend.

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just reshape how children learn and see the world. It transformed the shape of their eyeballs.

As real-life classrooms and playgrounds gave way to virtual meetings and digital devices, the time that children spent focusing on screens and other nearby objects surged — and the time they spent outdoors dropped precipitously. This shift led to a notable change in children’s anatomy: their eyeballs lengthened to better accommodate short-vision tasks.

Study after study, in regions ranging from Europe to Asia, documented this change. One analysis from Hong Kong even reported a near doubling in the incidence of pathologically stretched eyeballs among six-year-olds compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Continue reading at Nature .

"Snake-like" probe images arteries from within

Wed, 15 May 2024 21:48:17 GMT

The new fiber-optic probe could transform aneurysm and brain clot treatments

Neurosurgeon Vitor Mendes Pereira has grown accustomed to treating brain aneurysms with only blurry images for guidance.

Equipped with a rough picture of the labyrinthine network of arteries in the brain, he does his best to insert mesh stents or coils of platinum wire—interventions intended to promote clotting and to seal off a bulging blood vessel.

The results are not always perfect. Without a precise window into the arterial architecture at the aneurysm site, Pereira says that he and other neurovascular specialists occasionally misplace these implants, leaving patients at a heightened risk of stroke, clotting, inflammation, and life-threatening ruptures. But a new fiber-optic imaging probe offers hope for improved outcomes.

According to Pereira’s early clinical experience, the technology—a tiny snake-like device that winds its way through the intricate maze of brain arteries and, using spirals of light, captures high-resolution images from the inside-out—provides an unprecedented level of structural detail that enhances the ability of clinicians to troubleshoot implant placement and better manage disease complications.

“We can see a lot more information that was not accessible before,” says Pereira, director of endovascular research and innovation at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “This is, for us, an incredible step forward.”

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

mRNA drug offers hope for treating a devastating childhood disease

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 15:24:21 GMT

Drug trial results show that vaccines aren't the only use for the mRNA technology behind the most widely used COVID-19 jabs.

A drug that uses messenger RNA technology has shown early success in addressing the core deficiency behind a rare genetic disorder. The results have ignited hope that the technology — which first gained attention through its breakthrough use in COVID-19 vaccines — could realize its long-awaited promise of generating therapeutic proteins directly in the body.

This clinical advance, reported today in Nature, provides a boost to current mRNA applications, which remain limited to vaccines.

“This is a first step in the right direction,” says Katalin Karikó, a Nobel prizewinning pioneer of mRNA technologies who is affiliated with the University of Szeged in Hungary and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Yet challenges remain — especially the fleeting nature of mRNA and the side effects it causes, which complicate the path towards widespread adoption.

Continue reading at Nature .

Pressure-relief eye tech advances toward approval

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 14:06:45 GMT

FDA panel’s green light on glaucoma wearable device offers hope in sight.

On March 21, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its unanimous blessing to a piece of wearable technology that alleviates symptoms of the progressive eye disease glaucoma.

Known as the FSYX Ocular Pressure Adjusting Pump (OPAP) system, the device is designed to ease the pressure that accumulates in the eyes of people with glaucoma. This elevated pressure poses a risk of damaging the optic nerve that relays visual information to the brain, leading to irreversible vision loss.

“This will give our toughest-to-treat patients additional options,” says John Berdahl, an ophthalmologist in Sioux Falls, S.D., and the founder of Balance Ophthalmics, the company developing the OPAP system.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Stealthy stem cells to treat disease

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 21:31:52 GMT

Gene-editing strategies that allow stem cells to evade the immune system offer hope for universal cell-replacement therapies.

After decades of development, the dream of regenerative medicine has become a clinical reality — in part. Researchers can now cultivate stem cells in a laboratory, transform them into specialized cell types and then transplant them into people to alleviate disease.

In theory, this strategy promises an endless supply of replacement parts for ailing and ageing bodies: neurons to combat Parkinson’s disease, insulin-producing pancreatic cells to reverse type 1 diabetes, heart muscle cells to enhance cardiac function, and more.

But there’s a catch: therapies derived from stem cells must be customized to the patient — a process that is both slow and expensive. Or they can be made using donor cells. But, because the immune system tends to reject foreign cells, these ‘allogeneic’ off-the-shelf treatments require the concurrent administration of immune-dampening medicines — a strategy that raises the risk of complications such as infection and cancer.

Now, researchers are exploring a third approach — one that could fully realize the vision of mass-produced cell therapies for everyone, without the need for immune suppression.

Continue reading at Nature .

Sensory stimulation detoxifies the Alzheimer’s brain

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 19:14:58 GMT

40-Hz sound and light oscillations activate the brain’s waste-disposal function.

A flicker of light and a buzz of sound may hold the key to combating Alzheimer’s disease—and a new study in mice offers insights into how this unconventional therapy might work in humans.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

New tools detail the dynamic world of cell organization

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 19:39:50 GMT

Imaging and molecular manipulation reveal how ‘condensates’ form and offer clues to the role of phase separation in health and disease.

The cells glow green under the high-powered microscope, each bedazzled with a constellation of luminous proteins and RNA that, like oil droplets in water, have huddled together through a process known as phase separation.

A foundational concept in the fields of engineering, chemistry and physics, phase separation — the mechanism by which complex mixtures segregate into distinct components — is beginning to revolutionize biology as well. The process is being hailed as a key organizing principle of the cell.

Continue reading at Nature .

The try-it-all approach to precision medicine

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 14:30:42 GMT

Researchers are blasting patients’ cancer cells with dozens of drugs in the hope of finding the right treatment.

The blood cancer had returned, and Kevin Sander was running out of treatment options. A stem-cell transplant would offer the best chance for long-term survival, but to qualify for the procedure he would first need to reduce the extent of his tumour — a seemingly insurmountable goal, because successive treatments had all failed to keep the disease in check.

As a last throw of the dice, he joined a landmark clinical trial. Led by haematologist Philipp Staber at the Medical University of Vienna, the study is exploring an innovative treatment strategy in which drugs are tested on the patient’s own cancer cells, cultured outside the body.

In February 2022, researchers tried 130 compounds on cells grown from Sander’s cancer — essentially trying everything at their disposal to see what might work.

One option looked promising. It was a type of kinase inhibitor that is approved to treat thyroid cancer, but it is seldom, if ever, used for the rare subtype of lymphoma that Sander had. Physicians prescribed him a treatment regimen that included the drug, and it worked. The cancer receded, enabling him to undergo the stem-cell transplant. He has been in remission ever since. “I’m a bit more free now,” says Sander, a 38-year-old procurement manager living in Podersdorf am See, Austria. ”I do not fear death any more,” he adds. “I try to enjoy my life.”

His story is a testament to this kind of intensive and highly personalized drug-screening method, referred to as functional precision medicine.

Continue reading at Nature .

Why autoimmune disease is more common in women: X chromosome holds clues

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:51:57 GMT

Rogue antibodies are drawn to the protein–RNA coating on half of the X chromosomes in an XX cell.

Why are women so much more susceptible to autoimmune diseases than men? A new explanation for the discrepancy has emerged: a molecular coating typically found on half of a woman’s X chromosomes — but not in males’ cells — might be provoking unwanted immune responses.

The coating, a mix of RNA and proteins, is central to a developmental process called X-chromosome inactivation. Researchers had previously implicated sex hormones and flawed gene regulation on the X chromosome as drivers of the autoimmune disparity. But the discovery that proteins central to X-chromosome inactivation can themselves set off immunological alarm bells adds yet another layer of complexity — and could point to new diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities.

“This really adds a new mechanistic twist,” says Laura Carrel, a geneticist at the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine in Hershey.

Continue reading at Nature .

Water and warfare: the battle to control a precious resource

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 14:32:46 GMT

Climate change could intensify the role of this vital and strategic asset in armed conflict.

Svetlana Mojsov: Unsung drug developer

ElieDolgin@gmail.com (Elie Dolgin) — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 16:12:25 GMT

How a biochemist finally gained recognition for her part in developing multibillion-dollar weight-loss drugs.

A new class of weight-loss drugs has swept into clinics and made medicines such as Ozempic and Wegovy household names. They have generated billions of dollars in profit for the pharmaceutical industry and brought scientific acclaim for the researchers credited with discovering the hormone behind them: an appetite suppressant called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1).

But there is one early pioneer who has not received due acknowledgement: Svetlana Mojsov.

A biochemist now at The Rockefeller University in New York City, Mojsov had a pivotal role in identifying and characterizing the active form of GLP-1. Yet her efforts went unrecognized in many accounts of the hormone’s discovery, and she has not shared the scientific prizes bestowed for that feat.

This year, Mojsov fought the entrenched narratives — and began to win wider recognition for her contributions to the field. “All I’m trying to do is put the scientific record straight,” she says.

Continue reading at Natu re .

Self-copying RNA vaccine wins first full approval: what’s next?

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 14:32:56 GMT

Researchers look ahead to the potential uses and benefits of a technology that has been more than 20 years in the making.

The approval of yet another RNA-based vaccine for COVID-19 might not seem momentous. But the endorsement last week by Japanese authorities of a jab against SARS-CoV-2 constructed using a form of RNA that can make copies of itself inside cells — the first ‘self-amplifying’ RNA (saRNA) granted full regulatory approval anywhere in the world — marks a pivotal advance.

The new vaccine platform could provide potent defence against various infectious diseases and cancers. And because it could be used at a lower dose, it might have fewer side effects than other messenger RNA (mRNA) treatments have.

Continue reading at Nature .

Why rings of RNA could be the next blockbuster drug

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 12:18:58 GMT

The commercial success of RNA vaccines for COVID-19 has revved up interest in circular RNAs as the next generation of therapies.

RNA-based vaccines were the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic. They set records for the highest-grossing drug launches in history, and their development was recognized in this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

But it was long known that this technology had a key shortcoming: RNA, in its usual linear form, is short-lived. Within hours, enzymes in cells descend on the molecule, chewing it to pieces.

RNA’s fleeting nature isn’t a big problem for a vaccine: it needs to encode proteins only for a short time to trigger an immune response. But for most therapeutic applications, it would be much better to have RNA that could stick around for longer.

That’s where circular RNAs, or circRNAs, come in.

Continue reading at Nature .

mRNA COVID vaccines saved lives and won a Nobel — what's next for the technology?

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 20:01:21 GMT

Nature talks to experts about how mRNA is transforming medicine.

In just three short years, mRNA vaccines have saved millions of lives, achieved household recognition and, as of this week, become the subject of a Nobel Prize. Yet the field shows no signs of slowing down.

In the wake of the technology’s dramatic success in generating quick-turnaround COVID-19 vaccines, investors have poured billions of dollars into expanding mRNA’s therapeutic reach.

This influx of cash promises to fuel the research and infrastructure needed to deploy mRNA medicines in ways that could transform public health by tackling hard-to-treat infectious diseases, cancers and rare genetic disorders.

“The sky’s the limit,” says Matthias Stephan, an immunologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. “For whatever you want to correct, or whatever you want to treat, there could be an mRNA medicine — that’s the excitement.”

Continue reading about mRNA medicines on the horizon at Nature .

Antibody therapies set to transform RSV prevention for babies

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 18:22:46 GMT

Drugs that counter RSV infection can safeguard newborns, offering another mode of protection alongside vaccines.

Unless you have had cancer or experienced an inflammatory disorder, chances are you have never taken an antibody drug. But Oliver DeLong, a healthy baby from Chicago, Illinois, probably received his first antibody therapy before he was even four months old.

Oliver participated in a clinical trial in 2021 that involved a unique kind of antibody treatment, one designed to prevent, rather than treat, disease. It is called nirsevimab, and studies show that the drug, when given before the start of the first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season that a baby will experience, can help youngsters to avoid the types of severe lung infection that often lead to hospitalization and even death.

Antibody drugs are usually given to treat severe diseases. But when it comes to RSV, these drugs have been used for more than 25 years as a preventive measure.

Rather than waiting for babies to contract the virus and get ill, physicians administer antibodies beforehand to stop RSV from taking hold — a vaccine-like approach that provides short-term protection against the worst complications of RSV-associated disease.

Continue reading at Nature Outlook .

MCED Testing Enters New Diagnostic Realms

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 15:38:27 GMT

Real-world performance data and trial results in symptomatic individuals continue to validate the promise of screening for multiple cancers with a single blood draw. However, some worry about the performance of GRAIL's commercially available multicancer early detection test in certain high-risk groups that were not the focus of early clinical development efforts.

Continue reading at Cancer Discovery .

Bat biotech takes flight

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 13:37:35 GMT

Harnessing the unusual biology of bats, researchers aim to turn drug discovery upside-down.

Bats have faced intense scrutiny as a source of deadly viruses, including the one that unleashed the recent global pandemic. Yet amidst their maligned reputation lies a captivating paradox: the very traits that make bats reservoirs of viral infections also render them potential allies in the pursuit of new drug targets.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

Personalized cancer vaccines pass first major clinical test

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 13:39:52 GMT

Moderna, BioNTech and others hope that personalized cancer vaccines will soon live up to their potential — even as they work out the wrinkles for the best use of their platform technologies.

Researchers have long suspected that therapeutic vaccines customized to a patient’s cancer might help raise the immune system to fight off the disease. Phase II data from a randomized trial of Moderna’s personalized vaccine mRNA-4157 now provide evidence that these therapeutics can yield meaningful — if still preliminary — clinical benefit.

The findings, reported earlier this year, have revitalized the cancer vaccine community, inspiring companies to intensify efforts to stimulate the immune system to recognize tumour-specific mutations known as neoantigens or neoepitopes.

Continue reading at Nature Reviews Drug Discovery .

Can Neural Stimulation Zap Addiction?

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 13:06:25 GMT

Different types of brain stimulation may reduce cravings.

ON A RAINY THURSDAY afternoon earlier this year, a neuroscientist named Vaughn Steele placed a figure-eight-shaped wand over a man’s scalp and began jolting him with powerful magnetic pulses. “We’ll start low and ramp up,” said Steele, an addiction researcher at Yale School of Medicine. The patient’s left eyebrow twitched with each zap as he stared at images of pill bottles, syringes, and other drug paraphernalia.

The patient, whom we’ll call Peter B. to protect his privacy, first tried heroin at a New Year’s party in the mid-1990s. He quickly moved from snorting to injecting the drug, and within a year, he was a daily user. Despite four overdoses, five residential detox programs, and a couple of stints in jail, he’s still struggling with addiction nearly three decades later.

Now in his mid-50s and in treatment with methadone, Peter continues to inject a synthetic opioid drug called fentanyl several times per week—“just to prevent getting sick,” he said. Without the drugs, he gets achy. Hot flashes, sweats, and shivers overtake him. “It’s just miserable,” he said.

Peter, a former construction worker from East Hartford, Conn., wishes things were different. “But I’ll be honest with you,” he said, “it’s a strong addiction.” And with his neural circuitry now reliant on drugs, getting sober seems like a near impossibility—unless Steele can rewire his brain with electromagnetism.

Continue reading the August 2023 cover story from IEEE Spectrum .

From Energy Drinks to Extending Life? Supplement Slows Aging in Mice and Monkeys

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 14:52:11 GMT

Taurine helped stave off death in laboratory animals, but researchers cautioned that the supplement is not a magic elixir.

Continue reading at the New York Times .

Scientists Unveil a More Diverse Human Genome

ElieDolgin@gmail.com (Elie Dolgin) — Wed, 10 May 2023 13:55:43 GMT

The “pangenome,” which collated genetic sequences from 47 people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, could greatly expand the reach of personalized medicine.

Continue reading at the New York Times .

'Remarkable' AI tool designs mRNA vaccines that are more potent and stable

Tue, 02 May 2023 13:42:37 GMT

Software from Baidu Research yields jabs for COVID that have greater shelf stability and that trigger a larger antibody response in mice than conventionally designed shots.

An artificial intelligence (AI) tool that optimizes the gene sequences found in mRNA vaccines could help to create jabs with greater potency and stability that could be deployed across the globe.

Developed by scientists at the California division of Baidu Research, an AI company based in Beijing, the software borrows techniques from computational linguistics to design mRNA sequences with shapes and structures more intricate than those used in current vaccines. This enables the genetic material to persist for longer than usual. The more stable the mRNA that’s delivered to a person’s cells, the more antigens are produced by the protein-making machinery in that person’s body. This, in turn, leads to a rise in protective antibodies, theoretically leaving immunized individuals better equipped to fend off infectious diseases.

What’s more, the enhanced structural complexity of the mRNA offers improved protection against vaccine degradation.

Continue reading at Nature .

Salamander Dads Are Turning Into Cannibals, Threatening Species Survival

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 14:50:13 GMT

The hellbenders’ alarming change in behavior may be linked to deforestation, a new study found.

Continue reading at the New York Times .

Hope for Haploinsufficiency Diseases

chrissy@northeastkingdomonline.com (Blog Owner) — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 18:04:54 GMT

When a single working copy of a gene is not enough, diseases called haploinsufficiencies can result. Researchers are figuring out ways to treat them.

To continue reading this article, click here.

DNA Confirms Oral History of Swahili People

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 14:48:05 GMT

A genetic analysis of dozens of ancient skeletons from East Africa helps pin down the origins of coastal Swahili society.

Continue reading at the New York Times .

How a pioneering diabetes drug offers hope for preventing autoimmune disorders

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 20:45:10 GMT

The approval of an antibody therapy that pauses the progression of type 1 diabetes is a first in the field, and some say a model for other drug developers.

Her sister’s life-threatening experience with diabetes was a wake-up call for Mikayla Olsten.

In 2016, when Olsten was 14 years old, her youngest sibling Mia landed in intensive care with failing kidneys and fluid in her lungs. It was ketoacidosis, a complication of type 1 diabetes (T1D) that is often the first sign that the body is not making enough of the sugar-regulating hormone insulin. Blood glucose levels spike, as do toxic waste products, throwing organ function into disarray.

Although she is healthy today, Mia is one of the estimated 9 million people worldwide who must deal with the daily grind of T1D, carefully managing their blood sugar and insulin levels.

And the scare prompted the Olsten family to test Mikayla for signs of diabetes that often precede disease symptoms. There was no previous history of T1D in the family, but siblings of those affected are at a greatly elevated risk.

The results came back positive for four of the five T1D markers that physicians look for, each a type of ‘autoantibody’ that tells the immune system to attack insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Mikayla also had abnormal sugar metabolism — the disease process was already under way. Her odds of making it through secondary school without progressing to a diabetes diagnosis were about one in three, clinicians estimated.

Yet Mikayla, now 21 and studying exercise physiology at Brigham Young University–Idaho in Rexburg, continues to live diabetes-free — probably thanks to a drug called teplizumab.

Continue reading at Nature .

Trial settles debate over best design for mRNA in COVID vaccines

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 20:41:14 GMT

The biggest defender of ‘unmodified’ mRNA for vaccines against infectious disease has a change of heart.

It’s only a small chemical tweak, but it has triggered huge division in the mRNA research community.

Proponents argue that a simple chemical modification to the backbone of mRNA is crucial to the success of mRNA vaccines, allowing them to trigger a potent immune response without massive side effects.

Exhibit A: the blockbuster COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna, both of which have this modification. But some mRNA manufacturers have long held that unmodified mRNA elicits a superior immune response to pathogens — a rift with implications for mRNA vaccine development.

Now the biggest champion of the unmodified approach has changed its tune. CureVac — which is one of the world’s oldest mRNA specialty companies and is based in Tübingen, Germany — is ditching unmodified mRNA, and embracing the modified version for its entire infectious-disease vaccine portfolio after disappointing results from COVID-19 vaccine trials.

Continue reading at Nature .

A New Treatment for Arthritis: Vagus-Nerve Stimulation

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 13:52:58 GMT

Studies will soon show whether electroceuticals outperform pharmaceuticals.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Could CAR-T-cell therapy offer hope to children with cancer?

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 20:37:46 GMT

The immunotherapy is beginning to show promise in solid tumours, but researchers want more dedicated research in young people.

Continue reading at Nature Outlook .

Ashkenazi Jews Have Become More Genetically Similar Over Time

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 14:38:43 GMT

A new study of skeletons from a cemetery in Germany reveals a hidden history of Jews in the Middle Ages.

Continue reading at the New York Times .

This is how an Alzheimer's gene ravages the brain

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 20:36:12 GMT

Study in cells and mice suggests that the variant APOE4 affects the all-important insulation around nerve cells.

No gene variant is a bigger risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease than one called APOE4. But exactly how the gene spurs brain damage has been a mystery.

A study has now linked APOE4 with faulty cholesterol processing in the brain, which in turn leads to defects in the insulating sheaths that surround nerve fibres and facilitate their electrical activity.

Preliminary results hint that these changes could cause memory and learning deficits. And the work suggests that drugs that restore the brain’s cholesterol processing could treat the disease.

Continue reading at Nature .

Extreme Weather Disrupts Care, Widens Inequities

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 15:43:11 GMT

Climate-related catastrophes like the recent floods in Eastern Kentucky are disrupting access to cancer care, increasing people's risk of exposure to carcinogens, and further exacerbating long-standing disparities in cancer care and survival.

Continue reading at Cancer Discovery .

Taking the tripping out of psychedelic medicine

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 19:29:39 GMT

Drugs under development offer the mental-health benefits of psilocybin and similar substances without inducing strong hallucinatory effects.

Psychedelic drugs can cause lasting effects on the brain. Just a single dose of these mind-altering substances can spur neurons to grow new offshoots called dendritic trees and branches that engage with their neighbours, creating elaborate networks of interconnected brain cells. This rewiring of neural circuitry helps to boost mood, combat depression and increase overall feelings of wellness. It can happen within days, and the benefits can last for months.

Chemical neuroscientist David Olson demonstrated this in 2018. Working on rats, fruit flies and zebrafish, he and his colleagues at the University of California, Davis, found that a variety of psychotropic medicines — including hallucinogenic agents LSD and DMT, as well as stimulants such as MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy) — rapidly produce these changes in brain architecture.

But these drugs come with plenty of downsides. They can cause life-threatening heart problems. Their perception-distorting effects make them ill-suited for individuals who might not respond well to hallucinations or other sensory alterations. And the need to administer the treatments under clinical supervision, often alongside psychotherapy sessions, can drive up costs and limit access for people who might otherwise benefit from the drugs’ ability to rewire the brain.

Hoping to find safer, more scalable alternatives, Olson started looking for compounds that pack the plasticity-inducing punch of true psychedelics but are free from their other-worldly experiences. He turned to Reddit and other online forums, searching for molecules that recreational-drug enthusiasts had already created but deemed to be failures — “psychedelic duds”, as Olson puts it. These agents lacked the hallucinatory powers their creators had been hoping for, but Olson found that many of them could trigger neuronal growth nonetheless.

Continue reading at Nature Outlook .

Unconventional γδ T cells 'the new black' in cancer therapy

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 19:27:11 GMT

A new era of cancer immunotherapy beckons as γδ T cell trials enter final stage.

The unique antitumor characteristics of γδ T cells are being put to the test in a first-of-its-kind clinical study that may pave the way to a new class of immunotherapy.

In the coming weeks, TC BioPharm will begin administering its proprietary formulation of donor-derived γδ T cells to patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) as part of a late-stage, pivotal trial designed to evaluate whether these ‘unconventional’ lymphocytes can specifically recognize cancers and rally an immune response against them — even without the addition of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or other types of genetic manipulation.

The trial should provide “proof of principle of whether it will feasible to use these off-the-shelf products,” says hematologist Emma Nicholson, a site investigator at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, UK. “There’s a lot of interest in whether γδ T cells have got antitumor activity.”

Today, more than a dozen different companies are pushing ahead with γδ T cell–based therapies of their own — and so, if TC BioPharm succeeds with its therapy, many others could soon follow.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

Better fat bubbles could power a new generation of mRNA vaccines

Thu, 12 May 2022 19:25:34 GMT

New lipid delivery systems aim to improve potency and reduce side effects.

As any dietician will tell you, some fats are good — and that is surely true of the little fatty balls found in two of the world’s most widely used COVID-19 vaccines.

Known as lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), these tiny bubbles of fat encase messenger RNA (mRNA) that encodes a viral protein, helping ferry it into cells and shield it from destructive enzymes.

The technology was key to the success of COVID-19 shots from Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech collaboration. But as beneficial as these fats are, there is plenty of room for improvement.

Continue reading at Science .

War in Ukraine Disrupts Trials, Cancer Care

Mon, 02 May 2022 15:48:49 GMT

The war in Ukraine is disrupting routine patient care, clinical trials, and basic cancer research—with potentially dire consequences. Physicians and researchers are helping patients as best they can, but cancer mortality is expected to rise in the country, and the impact on research could slow medical progress.

Continue reading at Cancer Discovery .

Pan-coronavirus vaccine pipeline takes form

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 19:21:22 GMT

Dozens of ‘universal’ coronavirus vaccines are in development. But will new technology platforms be able to overcome immunological unknowns?

As debates over additional booster shots for COVID-19 intensify, many public health researchers are looking to the influenza model of vaccination as a guide for how to handle the lasting threat of SARS-CoV-2. That could mean annual shots, as is routine today with seasonal flu prophylaxis.

But just as scientists have long sought a universal flu jab that can provide lasting protection against multiple subtypes of that respiratory virus, so too the field is on the hunt for pan-coronavirus vaccines that can ward off future variants of SARS-CoV-2 and preempt the next pandemic.

Dozens of non-profits, government agencies and vaccine makers have made these candidates a top research priority.

Read more at Nature Reviews Drug Discovery .

Could computer models be the key to better COVID vaccines?

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 19:18:33 GMT

For vaccine dosing decisions, past experience and best guesses won the day in the mad rush to beat back the pandemic. Modelling tools might have made a difference.

Continue reading at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00924-8 .

Closing in on a cure for hepatitis B

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 19:15:58 GMT

Finite courses of treatment could get the virus under control — with the right combination of drugs.

For Thomas Tu, eliminating hepatitis B is a deeply personal goal.

Tu, a molecular virologist at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, learnt he had chronic hepatitis B as a teenager. A blood test revealed telltale signs of the infectious liver disease, which Tu had probably acquired at birth.

In his late 20s, Tu started taking a medication to limit the virus’s replication and prevent collateral damage to his liver cells. Now 36, he has been on that daily treatment — a pill known as a nucleoside analogue — ever since.

Yet, even with a therapy that keeps his infection well under control, Tu remains at heightened risk for liver disease. He must juggle visits to specialist doctors and bear prescription-drug costs. And he knows that many others — racked by the financial instability, emotional toil and stigma that the lifelong infection can bring — have it much worse.

“I’m in this quite privileged space to be able to be on therapy and not have any side effects or feel any burden from taking daily medicines,” Tu says. “That’s not the same for the majority of people living with hepatitis B.”

That’s why Tu and many other leading virologists and hepatologists continue to strive for something better: a curative fix for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections.

Continue reading at Nature Outlook .

First soluble TCR therapy opens 'new universe' of cancer targets

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 19:09:37 GMT

T cell receptor bispecific agents provide off-the-shelf therapies for targeting intracellular tumor antigens.

The first bispecific molecule to engage tumor antigens via T cell receptor (TCR) targeting won approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in January. The landmark regulatory decision could usher in a wave of similar off-the-shelf biologics that, unlike adoptive TCR-based cell therapies, don’t require the genetic manipulation of patient immune cells or their expansion in the laboratory.

These bispecific TCR agents can also potentially direct the body to attack cells expressing any cancer-related intracellular proteins, which are digested into peptides and presented on the cell surface to the immune system by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules — and this, as David Scheinberg, a molecular pharmacologist who heads the Center for Experimental Therapeutics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, points out, “really opens the door to a new universe of targets.”

Continue r eading at Nature Biotechnology .

Diabetes cell therapies take evasive action

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 20:07:02 GMT

Protective encapsulating devices and gene-editing technologies could obviate the need for antirejection drugs in stem-cell-derived therapies for diabetes.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

tRNA therapeutics burst onto startup scene

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 20:04:25 GMT

Companies advance tRNA therapeutics to overcome mutant stoppages in protein synthesis shared by thousands of genetic diseases and cancers.

Alltrna launched in November 2021 billing itself as “the world’s first tRNA platform company.” By engineering transfer RNA molecules — the cellular couriers of protein synthesis — the startup, backed by $50 million in initial financing, aims to address the mechanisms of faulty protein production that can trigger all manner of disease.

But Alltrna is hardly alone in its pursuit of tRNA-based therapeutics. ReCode Therapeutics, Shape Therapeutics and Tevard Biosciences all came before it; and the field continues to expand with the arrival of hC Bioscience, a startup that emerged from stealth mode in late February with $24 million and a plan to fight cancer and rare diseases with tRNA.

All of the companies are focused, at least in part, on designing tRNAs to bypass premature stop signals and incorporate desired amino acids instead. Such premature termination codons — which function like misplaced periods in the middle of a sentence to muddle the message encoded in messenger RNA (mRNA) — are responsible for an estimated 11% of all inherited disease.

In theory then, just one ‘suppressor’ tRNA could conceivably remedy thousands of different rare inherited disorders, each caused by the same types of truncating ‘nonsense’ mutations that result in faulty gene expression.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

Where’s My At-Home Molecular COVID Test?

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 14:03:01 GMT

Rapid PCR-quality results are possible, but cost and supply issues stand in the way of mass adoption.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

The biological clean-ups that could combat age-related disease

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 20:01:28 GMT

Could targeting autophagy — often likened to a cellular trash management system — extend life? Some researchers are unconvinced.

Nerve Stimulation May Be a "Whole New Way" of Treating Stroke

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 14:04:48 GMT

Implantable device boosts blood flow to aid in stroke recovery, but questions linger over trial data.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

mRNA Vaccines for the Win; But mRNA Therapies…?

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 13:54:38 GMT

Unclear road ahead for biotech behind COVID-19 immunization successes

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Treg engineers take aim at autoimmunity

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 19:57:46 GMT

Companies are deploying regulatory T cells, equipped with CAR and TCR constructs, to suppress immunity — locally and for the long term.

Engineered adoptive T-cell therapies have already transformed the treatment of blood cancers. Now, several startups hope to harness the power of regulatory T cells (Tregs) to suppress immune responses and offer tolerance to transplant recipients, or to control the inflammation driving autoimmune disorders.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

How protein-based COVID vaccines could change the pandemic

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 19:55:13 GMT

Jabs from Novavax and other biotech firms are coming. Scientists say they have a lot to offer.

Continue reading at Nature .

Skin, nerve transplants from genetically modified pigs could help humans, but organs are a way off

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 18:53:31 GMT

A pig’s kidney was transplanted to a cadaver, but researchers say cross-species organ swaps remain years away

Though the study leader heralded an operation as providing “new hope for an unlimited supply of organs,” last month’s much-publicized transplant of a kidney from a genetically modified pig to a brain-dead human recipient did little to usher in cross-species organ swaps, others say.

Still, the engineered pigs could find less flashy uses today: as donors for skin and nerve grafts, providers of long-lasting heart valves, and sources of allergy-free meat.

Continue reading at Science .

mRNA flu shots move into trials

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 18:50:49 GMT

COVID-19 provided an opportunity to show that mRNA vaccines can work. Now, drug companies are racing to apply the technology platform for influenza.

Hot off the successful deployment of mRNA vaccines for the prevention of COVID-19, three leading drugmakers have moved seasonal flu vaccine candidates built with the technology into early clinical testing.

Continue reading at Nature Reviews Drug Discovery .

The tangled history of mRNA vaccines

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 18:47:21 GMT

Hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough.

The debate over who deserves credit for pioneering the technology is heating up as awards start rolling out — and the speculation is getting more intense in advance of the Nobel prize announcements next month. But formal prizes restricted to only a few scientists will fail to recognize the many contributors to mRNA’s medical development. In reality, the path to mRNA vaccines drew on the work of hundreds of researchers over more than 30 years.

Startups set off new wave of mRNA therapeutics

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 18:44:23 GMT

After the vaccine triumphs of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, a raft of startups is developing mRNA, circular RNA and self-amplifying RNA therapeutics.

A cadre of new startups are building next-generation RNA platform technologies designed to solve some of the unique challenges associated with using conventional mRNA tools as therapeutics.

'Super-antibodies' could curb COVID-19 and help avert future pandemics

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 18:40:24 GMT

Companies are designing next-generation antibodies modeled on those taken from unique individuals whose immune systems can neutralize any COVID-19 variant — and related coronaviruses, too.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in late May to sotrovimab, providing a new therapeutic weapon in the fight against SARS-CoV-2—and future coronaviruses with pandemic potential.

According to analysts and researchers alike, so-called super-antibodies such as sotrovimab should have an edge over first-generation monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies for COVID-19 because of their broad neutralization capacity in the face of emerging virus variants.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

CureVac COVID vaccine let-down spotlights mRNA design challenges

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 18:38:00 GMT

Scientists are searching for explanations to disappointing final-stage trial results. These insights could help guide the future development of mRNA vaccines.

Two vaccines made using messenger RNA (mRNA) have proved spectacularly successful at warding off COVID-19, but a third mRNA-based candidate has flopped in a final-stage trial, according to an initial report released this week.

Researchers are now asking why — and some think that choices about the type of mRNA chemistry used might be to blame. Any insight could help to guide the future design of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 or other diseases.

Continue reading at Nature .

Drugmakers go nuclear, continuing push into radiopharmaceuticals

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:32:31 GMT

With late-stage trial success, venture funding and next-generation alpha emitters on the way, targeted radiotherapy drugs are finally “getting the attention they deserve.”

The clinical success of the first targeted radiopharmaceutical designed to combat a common type of cancer looks poised to help bring the once-fringe treatment modality into the medical mainstream.

Earlier this month, Novartis reported phase 3 data from its VISION trial showing that men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer lived longer when, in addition to standard-of-care treatments, they received the company’s 177Lu-PSMA-617, a small-molecule drug that delivers radiation-emitting lutetium isotopes to cells expressing prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA).

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

Immunotherapy Withdrawals Put Spotlight on Accelerated Approval

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 15:50:29 GMT

The FDA's Accelerated Approval program is under scrutiny after four drug companies announced plans in recent months to withdraw indications for checkpoint inhibitors that, despite showing early promise, failed to demonstrate a survival benefit in confirmatory trials. The agency's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee will meet in late April to discuss whether six more indications for some of these same immunotherapies should be nullified as well.

Continue reading at Cancer Discovery .

The race for antiviral drugs to beat COVID — and the next pandemic

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 18:30:29 GMT

Despite dire warnings, a stockpile of ready compounds to fight viral pandemics was sorely lacking. Can drugmakers finally do the right thing?

The year 2003 was an ominous one for emerging infectious diseases. A pair of deadly influenza strains had leapt from birds to humans in Hong Kong and the Netherlands. And a new coronavirus was spreading around the world causing a mysterious illness that became known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Many experts feared they were watching the start of a global pandemic.

Fortunately, the worst-case scenario never materialized. But it was a close-enough call for Robert Webster, a leading authority on avian influenza, to start urging scientists and policymakers to prepare for the next outbreak. One of his top recommendations: develop and stockpile drugs that target a wide range of viral pathogens.

Drug researchers did not heed his call. After the SARS threat subsided, interest evaporated — and the world paid the price. “The scientific community really should have developed universal antivirals against SARS,” says Webster, now an emeritus member of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. “Then we would have had something in the stockpile for the emergence of COVID,” which is a caused by SARS-CoV-2, a close relative of the virus responsible for SARS.

Another warning shot came in 2012, when Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) — caused by another relative of SARS-CoV-2 — started spreading through a handful of countries. Still, the drug shelves remained largely bare — a fact that Jay Bradner, president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, regards as “regrettable”.

“Shame on us,” he says of the pharmaceutical industry. “We can be better prepared.”

Aside from one qualified success in remdesivir, a therapy originally developed to treat hepatitis C and Ebola, there were practically no strong antiviral drug candidates to quickly test and deploy against SARS-CoV-2. Researchers bemoan that there weren’t more options. “We need an arsenal,” says Kara Carter, head of discovery biology at the biotech company Dewpoint Therapeutics in Boston, Massachusetts, and president of the International Society for Antiviral Research.

New initiatives to create that arsenal are on the horizon.

Continue reading at Nature .

First GM pigs for allergies. Could xenotransplants be next?

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 18:26:27 GMT

The FDA greenlights α-Gal allergy-safe meat, but its makers have organs for transplants in their sights.

The first genetically engineered pig products could soon be coming to a dinner plate—or pharmacy—near you. Late last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized a facility in northern Iowa to raise hogs that lack the gene needed to produce galactose-α-1,3-galactose (α-Gal), a sugar molecule found naturally on the surface of porcine cells.

Trademarked under the name ‘GalSafe’, the pigs could now provide a source of meat for people who develop tick bite–induced allergic reactions to the sugar, a condition known as α-Gal syndrome. Byproducts of pork production could also be harvested to make allergy-free pharmaceuticals and medical implants. The porcine tissue could help overcome deficiencies in the donor supply of skin and nerve grafts.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

What Biden's Presidency Will Mean for Cancer

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 16:55:47 GMT

As vice president, Joe Biden was the cancer advocate-in-chief. As president, he has a different public health crisis to deal with—COVID-19—but given Biden's passion for cancer research, many expect he will build on the previous Moonshot initiative with another push to accelerate the pace of progress in cancer control.

Continue reading at Cancer Discovery .

Drug startups coalesce around condensates

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 19:22:56 GMT

Once a neglected biological phenomenon, condensates are attracting interest from small companies and large pharmas.

Three startups debuted in late 2020, all aiming to treat disease by manipulating the physiochemical and regulatory processes in cells that drive membrane-less hubs associated with disease pathogenesis. The field’s frontrunner, Dewpoint Therapeutics, also signed a major research pact last month with Pfizer — Dewpoint’s third such deal with a large pharma partner since the company’s inception two years ago.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

How Cancer Vaccine Tech Shaped COVID Response

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 16:52:37 GMT

The record-breaking speed of vaccine development in response to the coronavirus outbreak relied in part on manufacturing infrastructure, technology development, and research tools previously built for oncologic products.

Continue reading at Cancer Discovery .

How COVID unlocked the power of RNA vaccines

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 19:21:42 GMT

The technology could revolutionize efforts to immunize against HIV, malaria, influenza and more.

The era of RNA vaccines has arrived — and dozens of companies are getting in the game.

BTK blockers make headway in multiple sclerosis

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 20:57:22 GMT

By targeting both arms of the immune system, not just B cells, brain-penetrant inhibitors of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase could improve on anti-CD20 therapy for patients with multiple sclerosis.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

Send in the senolytics

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 20:52:02 GMT

Despite early failures in the clinic, the idea of anti-aging therapies that purge the body of dying cells is gaining traction with a raft of startups now focused on senescence.

Unity Biotechnology was one of the darlings of the nascent anti-aging biotech sector. With big-name investors, such as Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel, an impressive lineup of academic founders and a market valuation that once reached $700 million, the company was, in effect, the industry’s standard-bearer for the therapeutic idea of destroying senescent cells to blunt the ravages of aging.

In August, that idea took a hit when Unity announced that its lead drug candidate had failed to beat a placebo in reducing joint pain and stiffness, according to interim results from a trial of patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. The company’s stock plunged more than 60% on the news, nearly one-third of Unity staff were laid off, and its experimental drug UBX0101 — the first novel ‘senolytic’ agent ever to enter clinical testing — was swiftly abandoned.

That setback threw a pall over the entire senolytic field. A research note from Citi analyst Yigal Nochomovitz cited “substantially greater risk to the senolytic hypothesis.” However, other experts were more sanguine about a class effect, highlighting issues with trial design, study population and UBX0101 itself — a small-molecule inhibitor of MDM2 (murine double minute 2) designed to boost the activity of the proapoptotic p53 protein — as possible explanations for study failure.

In the meantime, more than two dozen other startup s continue to pursue approaches to target senescent cells — strategies that range from cell destruction and containment to senescence prevention and even reversal.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

How cells' 'lava lamp' effect could make cancer drugs more powerful

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 18:35:26 GMT

Discovery that synthetic compounds form concentrated droplets inside cells could shake up drug development — including the hunt for coronavirus treatments.

There’s a long-standing assumption in the pharmaceutical industry that when drug molecules enter a cell, they spread through it evenly — but, says biologist Rick Young, “that could not be further from the truth”.

Continue reading at Nature .

Brain's drain

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 16:43:35 GMT

Lymphatics in the central nervous system are attracting both controversy and drug hunters in search of therapeutic targets for a host of diseases.

Continue reading at Nature Biotechnology .

Cancer–neuronal crosstalk and the startups working to silence it

Fri, 07 Feb 2020 16:43:34 GMT

Investors back ‘cancer neuroscience’ outfits as the field breaks out from academia.

Continue reading here .

The kill-switch for CRISPR that could make gene-editing safer

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 16:43:36 GMT

How anti-CRISPR proteins and other molecules could bolster biosecurity and improve medical treatments.

It started out as “sort of a stupid thing to do”, recalls Joe Bondy-Denomy, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Francisco.

Continue reading here .

Gene therapy successes point to better therapies

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 16:43:30 GMT

Despite some data concerns, two treatments for a rare pediatric killer could usher in a new wave of innovative medicines for neurological conditions.

Continue reading at PNAS .

RNA Technologies Expand Tool Kit for Cancer Immunotherapy

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 15:45:46 GMT

Multiple companies are pursuing mRNA-based medicines that harness the body's protein-making machinery to transform lab-synthesized nucleotides into cancer-associated antigens, in the case of vaccines, or immune-stimulating molecules, in the case of therapeutics. Several candidates from BioNTech and Moderna have shown promise in early-stage testing.

Continue reading at Cancer Discovery .

The Internet Is Coming to the Rest of the Animal Kingdom

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 12:57:44 GMT

A new Doolittlesque initiative aims to promote Internet communication among smart animals.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Moondust, Radiation, and Low Gravity: The Health Risks of Living on the Moon

Thu, 27 Jun 2019 12:59:38 GMT

Apollo astronauts inhabited the moon for just a few days, but the long-term physiological effects of lunar living could be severe.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

The secret social lives of viruses

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 15:43:29 GMT

Scientists are listening in on the ways viruses communicate and cooperate. Decoding what the microbes are saying could be a boon to human health.

Continue reading at Nature .

A lifesaver with a catch: Powerful new cancer drugs can trigger diabetes — and no one is certain why

Wed, 29 May 2019 15:43:27 GMT

Researchers aim identify the root causes of drug-induced diabetes among cancer patients, and then to develop new therapeutic strategies for preventing diabetic complications.

Continue reading at STAT .

Could GMO Crops Help Solve the Climate Crisis?

Thu, 16 May 2019 18:53:54 GMT

Genetically engineered cereals may hold the key to sustainable agriculture.

Continue reading here .

The sounds of science: biochemistry and the cosmos inspire new music

Tue, 07 May 2019 15:43:26 GMT

Elie Dolgin profiles a compelling collaboration between scientists and composers in Paris.

Continue reading at Nature .

The dappled dilemma facing vitiligo science

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 15:43:26 GMT

Even as scientists celebrate progress in the lab, a stigma-busting movement asserts that those with the autoimmune skin condition are more in need of acceptance than medicine

Scientist John Harris doesn’t like to say the word “cure.” But after his discovery last year of a new strategy to alleviate a skin condition known as vitiligo, he now talks of a future in which long-term relief may be possible for the millions of people who have it.

Continue reading at Knowable Magazine .

How secret conversations inside cells are transforming biology

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 15:43:22 GMT

Organelles — the cell’s workhorses — mingle much more than scientists ever appreciated.

Continue reading at Nature .

Massive NIH–industry project opens portals to target validation

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:43:23 GMT

Five years in, the US$360 million Accelerating Medicines Partnership is yielding tools to speed up drug discovery for rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, diabetes, Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease.

Continue reading at Nature Reviews Drug Discovery .

Scientists brew cannabis using hacked beer yeast

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:43:19 GMT

Researchers modify microbe to manufacture cannabis compounds including the psychoactive chemical THC.

The yeast that people have used for millennia to brew alcoholic drinks has now been engineered to produce cannabinoids — chemicals with medicinal and sometimes mind-altering properties found in cannabis.

Continue reading here .

Genomic focus brings tea research to the boil

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 17:21:22 GMT

Genetic manipulation and innovative breeding techniques are paving the way to new tea varieties.

Continue reading here .

Sizzling interest in lab-grown meat belies lack of basic research

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 17:21:20 GMT

'Clean meat’ firms have drawn tens of millions of dollars in investment in recent years, but technical hurdles remain.

Private investment in lab-grown meat is soaring as companies chase the promise of boundless — and delicious — nuggets, steaks and burgers cultured in vitro rather than reared on the hoof.

Continue reading here .

To halt brain diseases, drugs take aim at protein traffic jams that kill neurons

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 17:22:09 GMT

Compound that normalizes flow of proteins in cells will now be tested in a clinical trial for ALS

Continue reading at Science Magazine .

Canada’s Keen on Cannabis, But this Green Rush isn’t so Green

Sat, 08 Dec 2018 17:21:27 GMT

Canadian marijuana is mostly grown indoors, sending massive amounts of energy up in smoke.

Step into the flowering room at any of Canada’s 130-plus legal cannabis producers , and you’ll be struck by the orange glow of high-pressure sodium lamps. Then you’ll hear the whir of air-circulating fans and HVAC systems. You probably won’t notice the finely tuned temperature and humidity levels those systems maintain. All these climate controls require energy — lots of it.

Continue reading at Asparagus Magazine .

The first frontier for medical AI is the pathology lab

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 17:21:26 GMT

But before adopting startup PathAI’s tools, doctors must see if they are worth the cost

This is how a pathologist could save your life.

Imagine you’re coughing up blood, and a chest scan reveals a suspicious mass in your lungs. A surgeon removes a small cylindrical sample from the potential tumor, and the pathologist places very thin slices of the tissue on glass slides. After preserving and staining the tissue, the pathologist peers through a microscope and sees that the cells have the telltale signs of lung cancer. You start treatment before the tumor spreads and grows.

And this is how a pathologist could kill you: The expert physician would just have to miss the cancer. Or, more likely, misclassify the cells viewed on the slides as the wrong cancer subtype. Rather than getting a targeted therapy that beats your cancer into remission, you receive conventional chemo that buys you a few more months of life.

An artificially intelligent pathologist probably wouldn’t make that mistake.

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Precision therapies take aim at non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 17:21:32 GMT

The dramatic success of ibrutinib has created a more hopeful reality for people with lymphoma, as targeted therapies fill the pipeline.

Continue reading here .

What legal weed in Canada means for science

Wed, 17 Oct 2018 16:21:33 GMT

Opportunities abound to improve the cultivation of a once-forbidden plant.

Jonathan Page has been around cannabis all his life. Growing up on Canada’s Vancouver Island in the 1970s, he was surrounded by hippie beachcombers and dope smokers. So after earning a PhD in plant biology and phytochemistry, he felt completely at ease working with the plant Cannabis sativa as a postdoc in Germany in the early 2000s.

Continue reading at Nature .

Bioengineers Aim to Break Big Ag's Addiction to Fertilizers

Thu, 31 May 2018 17:20:19 GMT

Designer microbes could replace the chemical fertilizers that contribute to climate change

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

When Huntington’s disease comes early

Wed, 30 May 2018 16:21:35 GMT

Although it usually affects people in middle age, the inherited neurodegenerative condition can also develop in children and teenagers.

Continue reading here .

Making babies: How to create human embryos with no egg or sperm

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 16:22:15 GMT

Artificial wombs and embryos made from skin cells – remarkable new techniques could revolutionize reproductive biology and help bring an end to infertility.

Continue reading at New Scientist .

What lava lamps and vinaigrette can teach us about cell biology

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 19:33:45 GMT

Like oil in water, the contents of cells can segregate into droplets. It’s called phase separation, and biologists are seeing it everywhere.

Continue reading at Nature .

The most popular genes in the human genome

Wed, 01 Nov 2017 19:55:19 GMT

A tour through the most studied genes in biology reveals some surprises.

Continue reading at Nature .

The Hexanucleotide Hex

Thu, 19 Oct 2017 18:37:45 GMT

For years, researchers missed the most common genetic cause of ALS. Now they're on an accelerated track to treat it.

Continue reading here .

Getting on cancer's nerves: A surprising way to thwart tumours

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 16:26:09 GMT

A technique for alleviating pain has exposed cancer's weak spot and may finally enable us to stop the disease by disabling the nerves that help it spread

Continue reading at New Scientist .

Michael Sporn: A legacy of greater knowledge

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 18:32:03 GMT

For the love of discovery, a biochemist freely shared the research which laid the groundwork for widely-used drugs.

At 84, retired biochemist Michael Sporn leads a quiet life in a restored farmhouse nestled in Vermont’s bucolic White River Valley.

Continue reading here.

Radiation Redux

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 15:25:59 GMT

Could traditional radiation treatments work in concert with immunotherapy to mount a more effective assault on cancer?

Continue reading here .

The appetite genes: Why some of us are born to eat too much

Wed, 31 May 2017 16:29:46 GMT

Subtle differences in how we respond to food, driven by our genes, are the true reason we can struggle to keep to the weight we want to be

Continue reading at New Scientist .

First Eczema Biologic Debuts but Price Could Restrict Use

Tue, 09 May 2017 16:51:00 GMT

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first biologic therapy for atopic dermatitis, the itchy skin condition better known as eczema.

Continue reading here .

DNA's secret weapon against knots and tangles

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 16:22:05 GMT

One of the most puzzling problems in genome architecture may have a simple solution. But no one can agree on what powers the process.

Continue reading at Nature .

The New Offensive on Alzheimer's Disease: Stop it Before it Starts

Thu, 16 Feb 2017 17:22:12 GMT

The key to treating Alzheimer's disease is early intervention, before symptoms are evident and brain damage is too extensive. "That's how you stop the disease," says Rudy Tanzi, director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. "You don't wait."

Continue reading the cover story from Newsweek .

Progressive steps

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 19:43:16 GMT

New drugs are beginning to show promise for people with one of the less common, and harder to treat, forms of multiple sclerosis.

Continue reading here.

Cancer Immunology Community Seeks Better End Points

Tue, 29 Nov 2016 16:59:04 GMT

Drug developers are still hunting for surrogate end points that can better capture the benefits of checkpoint inhibitors, oncolytic viruses and modified T cell therapies.

Continue reading here.

Combating Antibiotic Resistance From the Ground Up

Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:37:06 GMT

Whenever anyone from Gerry Wright’s laboratory goes on vacation, they come back with a small plastic bag of dirt. Usually these muddy mementos yield nothing of interest. But one graduate student’s soil souvenir from a hiking trip in Eastern Canada produced a compound that could hold the key to combating one of the world’s most insidious groups of superbugs.

Continue reading here.

Early Clinical Data Raise the Bar for Hemophilia Gene Therapies

Tue, 11 Oct 2016 16:57:17 GMT

Several gene therapy companies reported promising early clinical data in July showing that they could restore healthy blood clotting factor levels in people with severe hemophilia.

Continue reading here .

Using DNA, radiation therapy gets personal

Fri, 23 Sep 2016 16:22:11 GMT

Gene-based tests aim to predict who will benefit from radiation, or suffer.

At most cancer hospitals today, medical oncologists routinely order genetic tests that help guide their treatment decisions. If the tumor has a certain DNA mutation, the patient may be a good candidate for a targeted drug therapy; if it overexpresses a series of genes, chemotherapy might work well. But down the hallway in the radiation ward, cancer patients typically get a one-size-fits-all course of radiotherapy, regardless of their genetics or those of their cancer.

A small but increasing number of radiation oncologists is hoping to change that.

Continue reading at Science .

In groundbreaking trials, surgeons to use infected kidneys for transplants

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 16:54:47 GMT

Transplant surgeons at two US hospitals are about to do something long considered taboo: put kidneys from donors with hepatitis C into recipients without the infection.

Continue reading at STAT .

What’s in a biotech name? How drug startups choose their brand

Wed, 09 Mar 2016 18:01:30 GMT

The intellectual property is secure. The science is sound. You’re about to make your pitch for funding. The scary next step for a biotech entrepreneur? Picking a company name.

Continue reading at STAT .

Shoddy biopsies deny cancer patients a shot at personalized treatment

Fri, 22 Jan 2016 18:05:18 GMT

A huge federal trial of personalized cancer medicine has run into an unexpected roadblock: Many of the tumor samples aren’t robust enough to be put through genetic analysis.

Continue reading at STAT .

Taking Evolution to the Clinic

Tue, 03 Nov 2015 16:44:41 GMT

An exploration of what might be possible when basic researchers and physicians collaborate as part of an area sometimes called “evolutionary medicine.”

Continue reading here.

Moving to Israel May Be Making Ethiopian Jews Sick

Fri, 07 Aug 2015 17:43:23 GMT

Inflammatory bowel disease is on the rise among Ethiopian Jews who have moved to Israel

Continue reading at The Forward .

Genetically Engineered Stem Cells Could Be Tomorrow's Cancer Treatment

chrissy@northeastkingdomonline.com (Blog Owner) — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 18:09:55 GMT

Stem cells can serve as delivery vehicles for tumor-eradicating drugs.

To continue reading the article, click here.

Tracking down the optimum dose of exercise

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 19:14:31 GMT

Prescribing physical activity could soon become as routine as prescribing drugs, and at least as beneficial.

Forget laughter. And maybe even drugs. Exercise is the best medicine, or so many doctors say.

Continue reading here .

The Billion-Dollar Biotech

Wed, 03 Jun 2015 16:22:06 GMT

Moderna Therapeutics has big ambitions and a bankroll to match. How a fledgling start-up became one of the most highly valued private drug firms ever.

Continue reading at Nature .

Oncolytic viruses get a boost with first FDA-approval recommendation

Mon, 01 Jun 2015 16:06:42 GMT

The future of cancer-killing viruses lies in their potential to augment cell and antibody immunotherapies.

Continue reading here .

How to ruin cancer’s day

Fri, 01 May 2015 17:35:32 GMT

By taking advantage of differing circadian rhythms in healthy cells and tumors, researchers hope to add a powerful new tool for treating the disease.

Continue reading at Knowable Magazine .

Smart Sewers for Public Health

Fri, 10 Apr 2015 17:25:35 GMT

With robotic samplers, public-health officials will study cities’ microbiomes

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

The myopia boom

Sun, 15 Mar 2015 19:48:12 GMT

Short-sightedness is reaching epidemic proportions. Some scientists think they have found a reason why.

The southern city of Guangzhou has long held the largest eye hospital in China. But about five years ago, it became clear that the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center needed to expand.

More and more children were arriving with the blurry distance vision caused by myopia, and with so many needing eye tests and glasses, the hospital was bursting at the seams. So the centre began adding new testing rooms — and to make space, it relocated some of its doctors and researchers to a local shopping mall.

Now during the summer and winter school holidays, when most diagnoses are made, “thousands and thousands of children” pour in every day, says ophthalmologist Nathan Congdon, who was one of those uprooted. “You literally can't walk through the halls because of all the children.”

Continue reading at Nature .

Bringing HIV Labs by Backpack to Rural Africa

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 18:30:05 GMT

Diagnostic medicine goes mobile in Africa, thanks to new microfluidic tools

Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum .

Stop Developing Drugs for the Cancer That Killed My Mother

Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:56:37 GMT

October 31, 2014 Illustration by Shout

Funding drug development for rare cancers can hurt patients.

Scientists need to abandon the assumption that every medical challenge must be overcome by a direct attack.

Click here to continue reading.

Take Two Sugar Pills and Call Me in the Morning

chrissy@northeastkingdomonline.com (Blog Owner) — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 18:00:19 GMT

July 31, 2014 Illustration By Serge Bloch

Genetic tests can predict when placebos may be the best medicine.

These patients might actually do worse than others on certain kinds of active drug therapies.

To continue reading this article, click here .

Nature Medicine: Podcasts

Mon, 07 Jul 2014 16:21:39 GMT

Podcasts

The Nature Medicine Podcast reports on cutting-edge news in biomedical research from around the globe. The program features interviews with experts and a review of the advances that scientists hope to translate from bench to bedside. Tune into the podcast to learn about breakthroughs and policy developments in medical research.

Listen here .

Israeli Curling Aims For The Big Leagues

Fri, 06 Jun 2014 17:57:43 GMT

American and Canadian curlers face off for a spot on Israel’s growing team

“Hello, I’m Terry Braunstein. I’m a curler. And I’m Jewish.”

Continue reading at Tablet Magazine .

The Mathematician Versus the Malignancy

Wed, 07 May 2014 15:00:24 GMT

Patients have long received cancer treatments at the maximum tolerated dose on a regular schedule. Could a more sophisticated approach save lives?

Elie Dolgin meets one mathematical biologist whose theories are now being tested in the clinic to see if they can improve the efficacy of today's anticancer arsenal.

Continue reading at Nature Medicine .

Negative feedback

Wed, 02 Apr 2014 18:48:06 GMT

Schizophrenia debilitates not just by psychosis but by depriving people of the ability to feel pleasure.

Continue reading here .

What’s the Jewish Equivalent of a Jamaican Bobsledder? Maybe an Israeli Curler

Mon, 10 Feb 2014 19:06:10 GMT

Hoping to compete at the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea, Israeli recruiters are looking for North American curlers to join the team.

Continue reading at Tablet Magazine .

A (Kosher) Can of Worms

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:50:35 GMT

From the hulking Willamette meteorite to the sparkling Star of India sapphire, visitors to the American Museum of Natural History in New York are used to seeing unusual sights. But museum-goers last year were likely unprepared for the sight — and smell — of Rabbi Chaim Loike, as he walked past the ticket booths carrying grocery bags full of thawing frozen sardines, fish oil dripping onto the lobby floor beneath the barosaurus skeleton in the front entrance off of Central Park West.

Continue reading at The Forward .

Mice That Eat Yogurt Have Larger Testicles

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:54:54 GMT

Probiotics may endow rodents with a "mouse swagger".

Continue reading at Scientific American h ttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/real-males-eat-yogurt/ .

Call in the backup

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:06:25 GMT

The most common genetic killer of infants, a disease known as spinal muscular atrophy, is caused by mutations in a single gene. The human genome contains its own backup system — near-identical copies of the defective gene — yet these secondary sequences rarely get used correctly.

As Elie Dolgin finds out, drug companies hope to change that, with the first wave of targeted therapies that reboot the body's backup system now entering clinical trials.

Continue reading here .

Taking Tissue Engineering to Heart

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:17:08 GMT

More than a decade after Japanese scientists implanted the first bioengineered blood vessel into a child with a congenital heart defect, the experimental treatment has finally made its way into clinical testing in the United States.

Continue reading here.

Nature Video: Miniature lab can diagnose disease in the field

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:21:45 GMT

A credit card-sized device called the mChip can diagnose HIV and syphilis in minutes in the remotest reaches of the developing world. The device, which was successfully field tested in Rwanda, is described in the August 2011 issue of Nature Medicine.

Watch the video here .

Evolution, Resisted

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:21:49 GMT

SCIENTISTS ARE TRYING TO DESIGN THE LAST MALARIA CONTROL AGENT THE WORLD WILL EVER NEED

Continue reading here .

The Number Two-ome

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:32:54 GMT

Eric Alm bursts into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology lab and grabs a small, maroon-colored sports duffel bag. “Give me seven and a half minutes,” he says with a sense of urgency. “I’m taking a sample and I know exactly how long that takes me.” Into the duffel bag he stuffs a disposable plastic commode about the size of a fedora hat, latex gloves, an autoclaved sampling tube, and a biohazard container.

Continue reading here .

Now showing: RNA activation

Fri, 01 May 2009 16:41:55 GMT

RNA is Supposed to Silence Genes, not Boost Gene Expression.

Continue reading here .

Invasion of the Hybrids

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:38:51 GMT

The sticklebacks of coastal B.C. are ideal for studying natural selection in action — but now crayfish and crossbreeding are threatening to eliminate evolutionary scientists’ favorite fish.

Continue reading at The Globe and Mail .

CBC: Invasive crayfish threatens endangered fish

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:21:41 GMT

Invasive crayfish threatens endangered stickleback fish in Enos Lake, British Columbia.

Listen here.

Hello, Dolly

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:47:00 GMT

The Gwich’in people of Canada’s North have depended for centuries on a colorful fish called the Dolly Varden – which is now on the verge of extinction. In a race to save the species, locals and conservationists are combining forces.

Continue reading at The Globe and Mail .