lonal analyses and gene profiling identify genetic biomarkers of the thermogenic potential of human brown and white preadipocytes, Nature Medicine, 2015;
. an associate professor of biological sciences and physics at Columbia University and the paper lead author. vaporation is a fundamental force of nature,
with a possible focus on filtering biological contaminants from groundwater to make it safe to drink. There are already a number of filters on the market that can do this,
The system is equipped also to treat the biological contaminants that Wright initially thought she be treating,
It is common for these so-called chiral molecules to exist in just one form in biological systems,
The chirality of these biomolecules also strongly affects the way in which they interact with other molecules,
and biological research. These devices are usually too large to be portable, but MIT scientists have shown now they can create spectrometers small enough to fit inside a smartphone camera,
which have been used primarily for labeling cells and biological molecules, as well as in computer and television screens. sing quantum dots for spectrometers is such a straightforward application compared to everything else that wee tried to do,
The findings strongly suggest that stem cell-based gene therapy with a CAR may be a feasible and effective treatment for chronic HIV infection in humans.
said Jerome Zack, professor of medicine and of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics in the UCLA David Geffen School of medicine and a co-author of the study. ith the CAR approach,
we aim to change that. Zack is co-director of the UCLA AIDS Institute and is affiliated with UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and a member of the Broad Stem Cell Research center.
Based on current scientific models of eczema biology, assistant professor of dermatology Dr. Brett King. hypothesized that a drug approved for rheumatoid arthritis,
has defined a subgroup of genetic mutations that are present in a significant number of melanoma skin cancer cases.
Their findings shed light on an important mutation in this deadly disease, and may lead to more targeted anticancer therapies.
The study is published in Nature Genetics. The role of mutations in numerous genes and genomic changes in the development of melanoma a skin cancer with over 70
000 new cases reported in the United states each year is established well and continues to be the focus of intense research.
To deepen understanding of melanoma mutations, the Yale team conducted a comprehensive analysis using whole-exome sequencing of more than 200 melanoma samples from patients with the disease.
The multidisciplinary team drawing on their expertise in genetics, cancer, computational biology, pharmacology, and other disciplines also tested the response of tumor cells with specific mutations to anticancer drugs.
The researchers confirmed that a gene known as NF1 is a ajor playerin the development of skin cancer. he key finding is that roughly 45%of melanomas that do not harbor the known BRAF or NRAS mutations display loss of NF1 function,
which leads to activation of the same cancer-causing pathway, said Dr. Michael Krauthammer, associate professor of pathology and the study corresponding author.
Additionally, researchers observed that melanoma patients with the NF1 mutation were had older and a greater number of mutations in the tumors.
These include mutations in the same pathway, collectively known as RASOPATHY genes. Yet mutations in NF1 are not sufficient to cause skin cancer,
said Ruth Halaban, senior research scientist in dermatology, a member of Yale Cancer Center, and lead author of the study. oss of NF1 requires more accompanying changes to make a tumor,
she explained. ur study identified changes in about 100 genes that are present only in the malignant cells
Gilead sciences, Inc.;the Howard hughes medical institute; the Department of Dermatology; and the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center. Publication:
Michael Krauthammer, et al, xome sequencing identifies recurrent mutations in NF1 and RASOPATHY genes in sun-exposed melanomas, Nature Genetics, 2015;
biotechs race to develop acute radiation drugs Since the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power station,
Now, however, several small biotech companies are racing to develop the first approved therapy for ARS,
using biologics and small molecules to halt radiation harmful effects in the field. Some block cell death and protect damaged tissue exposed to radiation;
and biological attacks. These government awards include more than $500 million for the treatment and prevention of ARS.
#Where the bio-rubber meets the road My posts about biotechnology as it relates to agriculture tend to draw impassioned naysayers,
but surely here's a biotech application with which they can relate: a renewable fermentation process that seeks to act as a partial replacement for the an oil-based processes that goes into making synthetic rubber.
Biotech company Genencor, which is a division of Danisco, is more than one year into testing the commercial applications for
The only difference is that we are using biology to make it, and we are using renewable raw materials.
#Who wins in the battle of genome sequencers? Desktop sequencers promise to democratize genomics, but it s difficult for researchers who aren t experts in sequencing technology to sort through the overheated marketing claims made in this fiercely competitive industry.
As next-generation genome sequencing heads into the clinic and public health, it ll be targeted at people who don t necessarily fully understand these issues.
The Personal Genome Machine vs Miseq videos played off the Mac vs PC ads. People are crying out for independent analysis,
and weaknesses and when it comes to genome sequencing, there s no one-size-fits-all solution,
Basically, that inhibits the ability to do good public health analyses of bacterial genomes. The work was published in Nature Biotechnology this week.
And just last week Technology Review reported that Roche backed off its hostile takeover bid for Illumina,
genome by Davefayram via Flickr, sequencers from Nature New e
#Why (and how) retailers should embrace'showrooming'More evidence emerged this week suggesting the power of smartphones to reshape how retailers stock,
You can think of it as being biocompatible with our planet. But if this material gets put in your garden or on the side of the road,
It s getting broken into biocompatible stuff. It ll help improve the soil in your area.
including biometric smartwear that can monitor an athlete's health (like the ones made by Hexoskin,
causing the biopolymer to swell, and the individual polymer chains to start separating. At this point instead of allowing the material to completely dissolve,
and Dexcom have developed biocompatible coatings as well as sensors with multiple electrochemical sites that can be polled to see which ones no longer work properly.
the closed-loop robo-pancreas is ahead of such biological approaches, says IRCM Haidar, even though it will never duplicate the human body. e know an airplane isn better than a bird,
a medical geneticist who heads artificial pancreas research for the JDRF. A third kind of algorithm tries to model human physiology, for instance by considering how quickly food passes through your system
The only exotic component is the carbon nanotube aerogel sheet used for the fiber sheath
#The First White Laser Scientists and engineers at Arizona State university, in Tempe, have created the first lasers that can shine light over the full spectrum of visible colors.
high-energy photon has potential applications in biological imaging, high-density data storage, and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDS) L
And while biometric alternatives such as fingerprint readers are finding their way onto more consumer electronics devices they are not without their limitations either.
So what about tightening the security screw further by applying a continuous biometric such as a keyboard that knows who typing on it in real-time
analyze the chemical, biological, and radiological threats before someone actually gets to the fire. Police have been buying up drones for years now,
biochemical signals and pharmaceuticals. he beauty of this work is that it can serve as a test bed for clinical trials in a dish,
and also to reproduce the functional and biochemical signals of diseases especially rare ones and those that make taking muscle biopsies difficult.
When technology meets biology the interface is rarely flawless and the devices often hinder the bodies they are supposed to help.
a world in which technology erases disability and in which the synthetic and biological worlds meld seamlessly.
For his Phd in biophysics at Harvard he developed a numerical model to describe how a horse runs
Daniel Ferris director of the Human Neuromechanics Laboratory at the University of Michigan says that Herr's strength is knowing the biological mechanisms
While many engineers have built robotic devices for movement none have matched really Hugh's ability to fuse biology with engineering.
Redefining the Good Bodyin spite of the practical challenges Herr has a far-reaching vision for melding technology with biology.
#How a Wiki Is Keeping Direct-to-Consumer Genetics Alive When Meg Deboe decided to tap her Christmas fund to order a $99 consumer DNA test from 23andme last year,
a geneticist based in Maryland, and Mike Cariaso, a computer programmer. It works by comparing a person DNA data with entries in SNPEDIA,
a sprawling public wiki on human genetics that the pair created eight years ago and run with the help of a few dozen volunteer editors.
Consumer DNA tests determine which common versions of the 23,000 human genes make up your individual genotype.
As science links these variants to disease risk, the idea has been that genotypes could predict your chance of getting cancer or heart disease
a professor at Stanford university who helped developed a DNA interpretation site called Interpretome as part of a class he teaches on genetics. s it going to be concentrated by medical associations,
the FDA said it has authority to regulate software that interprets genomes, even if such services are given away free.
Gene Results Promethease can reanalyze the results of genotype tests sold legally for $99 to $199 by a variety of genealogy companies,
which are provided to customers as a text file containing a list of genetic variations. To Barbara Evans, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, the idea that people can gather DNA from one company
MIT Technology Review tested several interpretation-only sites using DNA data of anonymous donors posted publicly by the Personal Genome Project,
It organizes a person genetic variations under categories such as edical conditionsand edicines. Users can then click to see information about individual genes that scientific research has suggested could raise,
The information in the report is similar to that in 23andme banned ersonal Genome Service, but there are differences.
2035hat the genome will all make sense, and that the day you are allowed to see it,
Determining whether her relief is justified really might require the help of a trained geneticist. At least that the current view of the FDA and medical societies.
the surge of interest in Promethease and SNPEDIA represents a triumph for a no-frills approach to genetics.
Lennon says the site was modeled on Wikipedia. hat was the promise of the genome, that it should be for everybody,
Lick, who is adopted, says he became interested in genetics while searching for his birth parents and now spends a few hours a week updating SNPEDIA.
which raised $126 million and hired more than a dozen Phd geneticists to curate its own gene lists.
One way of doing this is to carbonize biological material, such as fruit or coconut shell. This means heating the material to few hundred degrees centigrade in a nitrogen atmosphere
which ensures that the carbon retains its porous biological structure. Instead of coconut shell, Dixit and co carbonized coconut flesh.
where it is responsible for the construction of most biomolecules. At the heart of this mechanism is Brownian motion
If you can have a simpler mechanism that doesn't require anatomical changes that's pretty darn good says Daniel Voytas director of the Center for Genome Engineering at the University of Minnesota.
Maureen Hansen a professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell says the advances won't be seen in commercially grown food crops for at least five or 10 years.
and making sure the genes are stable says Dean Price a professor of medicine biology and environment at Australian National University.
#Radical New DNA Sequencer Finally Gets into Researchers Hands One day in 1989 biophysicist David Deamer pulled his car off California's Interstate 5 to hurriedly scribble down an idea.
After testing it Mick Watson a bioinformatics researcher at the Roslin Institute in Scotland says nanopore sequencing is a disruptive technology that could potentially dominate the sequencing market for years to come.
A sequencer this small might one day let police read off a genome from a spot of blood at a crime scene or permit doctors to pinpoint viruses in the midst of an epidemic.
Hitachi is also working on nanopore technology as are startups like Electronic Biosciences. Deamer says the idea of nanopore sequencing occurred to him in 1989 just three years after the first automated DNA sequencers were introduced.
There were a lot of smart people saying this is physically not possible to do says Jeffery Schloss head of the division of genome sciences at the National Human genome Research Institute in Bethesda Maryland.
Another early creator of the technology Mark Akeson who works alongside Deamer in the bioengineering department at the University of California Santa cruz says
Those bits then have to be puzzled back together to create a genome. Even with a supercomputer the puzzle often can't be solved there can be repeated too many sequences
Like having the edges of a puzzle long reads make it much easier to reassemble a genome especially of a species never studied before.
which was introduced early this year (see Does Illumina Have the First $1000 Genome?)to labs interested in sequencing hundreds of thousands of human genomes for medical research h
#Motorized Pants to Help Soldiers and Stroke Victims A soft exoskeleton being developed by researchers at Harvard could let soldiers carry heavy backpacks over long distances or help stroke victims walk more steadily.
It s quite lightweight flexible and conformal says Conor Walsh a professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at Harvard.
To make the device even more efficient Walsh is studying human biomechanics and testing people s energy consumption as they use it.
Its founders among them the Nobel laureate and MIT biologist Philip Sharp had solved one of the biggest challenges facing the idea of RNAI therapies.
Biometric researchers from Michigan State university have developed a fingerprint-scanning system for children under five years old that could replace ineffective paper vaccination records.
Until now biometrics experts believed fingerprints of babies and toddlers were too unreliable because image sensors are designed for the ridges and valleys of adult fingertips.
They intend to present a paper detailing their work at a biometrics conference later this month.
Fingerprints are a better biometric trait than the iris of the eye or palm and footprints because they are easier to record from young children
The Michigan State university researchers plan to do further tests potentially in India where already there is a national biometric ID program.
Privacy groups have warned that biometric data can be misused or faked. However people in developing countries typically do not voice concerns over privacy
and security with biometric data says Mark Thomas the executive director of Vaxtrac a nonprofit that worked with the Benin trials.
Poon and her team found a way to use electromagnetic induction through biological tissue without that exponential decay.
When they send current through the plate that pattern produces a magnetic field capable of propagating through biological material without decaying over a short distance.
One of her graduate students is also designing plates that will penetrate materials other than biological tissue.
#Terahertz Chip Identifies Short Strands of DNA One of the more significant practical challenges currently occupying molecular biologists is to find better ways of identifying short strands of DNA.
Called oligonucleotides these strands of nucleotides are hugely useful in processes such as genetic testing forensics and DNA amplification.
But molecular biologists would like a better system that measures the characteristics of the molecules involved
Valencell licenses its Performtek technology to companies for biometric measurement on many parts of the body (Scosche, for instance,
and ear biometrics, thinks it certainly possible to get good physiological measurements this way. think that
you could actually do a lot in terms of reading biological signals related to the health of a person,
Now teams of scientists from research centers around the world, looking at the genetics of nearly 80,000 people, have worked together to identify 108 genetic loci associated with the disorder.
Mobile technologies, sensors, genome sequencing, and advances in analytic software now make it possible to capture vast amounts of information about our individual makeup and the environment around us.
which a deletion on chromosome 22 causes problems such as learning and memory deficits, are building a database of information from genomic tests, clinical medical records, extensive family surveys and histories,
just two years after chromosome 22 was sequenced. t just sitting there waiting to be used. s
Say Genome-Editing Scientists Scientists working at the cutting-edge of genetics say one possible application of a powerful new technology called genome editing has the potential to cause ecological mayhem and needs
but it possible to engineer an organism chromosomes to alter those odds. Researchers have used already the idea to design mosquitoes that only make male offspring
as well as James Collins, an expert in genetic engineering at Arizona State university, ene drives present environmental and security challenges.
what worries the scientists is that new genome editing methods, known as CRISPR/Cas9, will make it much easier to do.
Today, genetic research is moving even faster, but with few if any constraints on laboratory science.
#British Government Picks Illumina to Sequence 100,000 Genomes The british government says that it plans to hire the U s. gene-sequencing company Illumina to sequence 100,000 human genomes in
While the number of genomes to be sequenced is 100 000, the total number of Britons participating in the study is smaller, about 70,000.
and Illumina rival BGI (see nside China Genome Factory. At the time, the average cost of completing a genome was about $3, 000 to $4, 000.
Completing all 100,000 genomes would have cost more than twice Genomics England budget. The agency said in December it intended to use its negotiating power to drive prices down.
Illumina reacted by releasing a new system the Hiseq X Ten, which it says would be able to sequence genomes for $1, 000 each,
crossing a long-anticipated price barrier (see oes Illumina Have the First $1, 000 Genome?.
That system is actually 10 machines, each costing $1 million. By requiring buyers to invest at least $10 million in equipment,
the price per genome is still closer to $2, 000 than $1, 000. Parry says Illumina will carry out the sequencing on behalf of Genomics England,
Illumina will carry out sequencing on behalf of Genomics England of 100,000 genomes. An earlier version of this article said incorrectly that Genomics England intended to sequence the DNA of 100,000 distinct individuals
a professor of chemistry and chemical biology, turned to nature for an alternative approach, taking inspiration from the pitcher plant,
Electrical resistance between the electrodes turns out to be a biometric: it is unique to individuals, depending on their body composition, flesh thickness,
#Genome Editing to Reverse Bubble Boy Syndrome Researchers used an emerging technique to correct the gene behind a fatal immune system disorder in an infant.
A new kind of gene therapy which involves editing, rather than replacing, faulty genes in sick people, is being used experimentally in patients.
The latest report shows how scientists can correct a broken gene as it sits in the patient genome.
Genome editing technology is considered a promising new tool for curing disease. For decades gene therapy has meant that a virus delivers a functional copy of a gene that is dysfunctional in a patient.
The dysfunctional copy remains and the therapeutic version typically remains separate from the rest of the genome.
The technology has drawbacks. First, by sitting outside of the genome, the activity of therapeutic gene isn regulated properly.
In some cases, the therapeutic copy is delivered by a retrovirus the plunks the new gene down near randomly in the patients genome,
which risks disrupting another gene, potentially causing cells to turn cancerous. Second, some diseases, such as Huntington
Using genome editing to repair genes could circumvent these issues (see enome Surgery. In the new study, published today in the journal Nature,
Children with this genetic condition have been treated with the additive gene therapy method in the past, and some suffered leukemia-like diseases as a side effect (see he Glimmering Promise of Gene therapy.
In the new report, researchers describe treating a single infant with zinc-finger nucleases designed to repair a defective copy of an important immune system gene.
But the team shows that the genome editing did reconstitute a functional copy of the immune system gene in a small fraction of bone marrow cells
his work is undoubtedly a step towards using gene repair for gene therapy, writes immunologist Alain Fischer in an accompany article also published in Nature.
Fischer led the first successful gene therapy trials for SCID patients. In March, researchers reported an even more dramatic example of gene repair.
Scientists used zinc fingers to engineer the immune cells of patients with HIV to resist the virus (see an Gene therapy Cure HIV?.
Genetic studies have shown that people with type 2 diabetes are more likely to have mutations in the gene that encodes a protein called insulin-degrading enzyme, or IDE.
are compounds far smaller than less common biological medicines like antibodies. They are developed using libraries of thousands or millions of known chemical substances.
if it has desired a effect on a biological target such as an enzyme or other protein known to be involved in a disease.
which a biological scaffold is sutured in. Within two days, the patients began an intensive physical therapy regimen that helps direct the development of stem cells in the body that are drawn to the implant.
a bioengineer at the Georgia Institute of technology who was involved not in the study. The new treatment, described in Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday,
As the scaffold starts to break down over several months, it releases biochemical signals that attract the body stem cells to the implant.
#Cochlear Implant Also Uses Gene therapy to Improve Hearing More than 300,000 people worldwide have cochlear implants.
Lustig group and others have been exploring gene therapy, but they use a virus to deliver the neurotrophin gene.
Robert Shepherd, director of the Bionics Institute, a nonprofit medical research center in Melbourne, Australia, says electrode-directed gene therapy could improve other kinds of neural interfaces. herever wee applying electrodes,
to test the electrode and gene therapy combination in a clinical trial i
#Increasingly, Robots of All Sizes Are Human Workmates Most industrial robots are far less friendly than the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner,
#Yeast 2. 0 Designer changes in the first artificial yeast chromosome could help advance synthetic biology.
Scientists have synthesized an entire yeast chromosome, the first artificial chromosome for the kingdom of life that includes humans, plants, and fungi.
Yeast with the artificial chromosome appeared to be just as happy as their aturalcounterparts, reports the team.
The methods developed to create the designer genomic structure could help synthetic biologists better use the single-celled fungi as biological factories for chemicals like biofuels and drugs.
Humans have been manipulating yeast for thousands of years, first turning wild strains of the fungus into the life-affirming fermenters that give us beer and bread.
Yeast also has long been a lab organism for studying molecular biology and genetics; in fact, a lot of what we know about cancer genetics comes from research on our fungal friends.
In recent years, scientists have figured out how to engineer new biochemical pathways into yeast, creating living factories for medicines, biofuels,
and more (see icrobes Can Mass-produce Malaria Drugand iofuel Plant Opens in Brazil. The report of the first artificial, designer yeast chromosome suggests ways for researchers to produce new chemicals in the microbes
or potentially make their biological production more efficient. Six years ago, the J. Craig Venter Institute built the first artificial chromosome,
which encompassed the complete genome of a bacterium (see ynthesizing a Genome From scratch. Two years later
that 582,970 base pair manmade genome was transplanted into a cell which successfully began to carry out its instructions (see ynthetic Genome Reboots Cell.
The first synthetic yeast chromosome, reported in Science on Thursday, represents just part of that organism complete genome
and is 272,871 base pairs long. The Johns hopkins university-led team first designed the chromosome on a computer, streamlining the natural chromosome sequence
so that it had less repetitive sequences and other tweaks. Undergraduate students in a class called uild-A-Genomeat Johns Hopkins used molecular biology tricks to string together snippets of DNA around 70 nucleotides (A
T, G and C) long into 750-base pair blocks. Then, other researchers continued to assemble those blocks into longer stretches of the chromosome,
and eventually the largest chunks were delivered into yeast cells, which took over the last assembly steps to create the whole, artificial chromosome.
The artificial chromosome is a designer version of just one of the yeast 16 chromosomes,
and the smallest one at that. But the work is an important step forward for synthetic biology
and a milestone in an international effort to build a completely synthetic yeast genome, project Sc2. 0 (from the scientific name for baker yeast,
Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In addition to deleting some unnecessary sequences from the code of their designer chromosome, the researchers also flanked many genes on the chromosome with tiny bits of DNA that act as landing sites for a protein that can be used to create on-demand mutations.
With these designer changes, the researchers say they will be able to test how many mutations a yeast genome can tolerate at once
and potentially discover beneficial mutations that could give rise to strains that can survive in a wider range of conditions
or perhaps be better factories for useful molecules like fuels and drugs. Already the researchers have shown that inducing mutation in yeast using the designer sites led to some cells that grow more slowly,
and yet others that grow more quickly. Lead researcher Jef Boeke tells The Verge that the team plans to create these mutation-ready additions in all 16 chromosomes.
That fountain of variability could be key to finding ways to push our fermenting friends to more efficiently create biofuels and other chemicals f
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