#Genetic engineering news

[jcmarchi]

Innovative Chemotherapy Approach Shows Promise Against Lung Cancer - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/innovative-chemotherapy-approach-shows-promise-against-lung-cancer-technology-org/

Innovative Chemotherapy Approach Shows Promise Against Lung Cancer - Technology Org

Lung cancer is not the most common form of cancer, but it is by far the deadliest.

Kytai T. Nguyen, the Alfred R. and Janet H. Potvin Distinguished Professor in Bioengineering at UTA. Image credit: UTA

Despite treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, only about a quarter of all people with the disease will live more than five years after diagnosis, and lung cancer kills more than 1.8 million people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization.

To improve the odds for patients with lung cancer, researchers from The University of Texas at Arlington and UT Southwestern Medical Center have pioneered a novel approach to deliver cancer-killing drugs directly into cancer cells.

“Our method uses the patient’s own cellular material as a trojan horse to transport a targeted drug payload directly to the lung cancer cells,” said Kytai T. Nguyen, lead author of a new study on the technique in the peer-reviewed Bioactive Materials and the Alfred R. and Janet H. Potvin Distinguished Professor in Bioengineering at UTA. “The process involves isolating T-cells (a type of immune cell) from the cancer patient and modifying them to express a specific receptor that targets the cancer cells.”

The crucial step in this new technique involves isolating the cell membrane from these modified T-cells, loading the membranes with chemotherapy medications, and then coating them onto tiny drug-delivery granules. These nanoparticles are roughly 1/100 the size of a strand of hair.

Jon Weidanz, associate vice president for research and innovation and professor of kinesiology and bioengineering. Image credit: UTA

When these membrane-coated nanoparticles are injected back into the patient, the cell membrane acts as a guide, directing the nanoparticles to the tumor cells with precision. This approach is designed to deceive the patient’s immune system, as the coated nanoparticles mimic the properties of immune cells, avoiding detection and clearance by the body.

“The key advantage of this method lies in its highly targeted nature, which allows it to overcome the limitations of conventional chemotherapy that often lead to detrimental side effects and reduced quality of life for patients,” said co-author Jon Weidanz, associate vice president for research and innovation and a researcher in kinesiology and bioengineering.

“By delivering chemotherapy directly to the tumor cells, the system aims to minimize collateral damage to healthy tissues,” continued Weidanz, who also is a member of UTA’s Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics.

In the study, researchers loaded the nanoparticles with the anti-cancer drug Cisplatin. The membrane-coated nanoparticles accumulated in parts of the body with the tumors rather than in other parts of the body. As a result, this targeted delivery system reduced the size of the tumors in the control group, demonstrating its efficacy.

“This personalized approach could pave the way for a new era of medicine tailored to each patient’s unique characteristics and the specific nature of their tumor,” Nguyen said. “The potential for reduced side effects and improved effectiveness makes our technique a noteworthy advancement in the field of cancer treatment.”

Source: University of Texas at Arlington

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[reasonsforhope]

"Scientists have created mice with two biological fathers by generating eggs from male cells, a development that opens up radical new possibilities for reproduction.

The advance could ultimately pave the way for treatments for severe forms of infertility, as well as raising the tantalising prospect of same-sex couples being able to have a biological child together in the future.

“This is the first case of making robust mammal oocytes [a.k.a. egg cells] from male cells,” said Katsuhiko Hayashi, who led the work at Kyushu University in Japan and is internationally renowned as a pioneer in the field of lab-grown eggs and sperm.

Hayashi, who presented the development at the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the Francis Crick Institute in London on Wednesday, predicts that it will be technically possible to create a viable human egg from a male skin cell within a decade. Others suggested this timeline was optimistic given that scientists are yet to create viable lab-grown human eggs from female cells.

Previously scientists have created mice that technically had two biological fathers through a chain of elaborate steps, including genetic engineering. However, this is the first time viable eggs have been cultivated from male cells and marks a significant advance. Hayashi’s team is now attempting to replicate this achievement with human cells, although there would be significant hurdles for the use of lab-grown eggs for clinical purposes, including establishing their safety.

“Purely in terms of technology, it will be possible [in humans] even in 10 years,” he said, adding that he personally would be in favour of the technology being used clinically to allow two men to have a baby if it were shown to be safe.

“I don’t know whether they’ll be available for reproduction,” he said. “That is not a question just for the scientific programme, but also for [society].”

The technique could also be applied to treat severe forms of infertility, including women with Turner’s syndrome, in whom one copy of the X chromosome is missing or partly missing, and Hayashi said this application was the primary motivation for the research.

Others suggested that it could prove challenging to translate the technique to human cells. Human cells require much longer periods of cultivation to produce a mature egg, which can increase the risk of cells acquiring unwanted genetic changes.

Prof George Daley, the dean of Harvard Medical School, described the work as “fascinating”, but added that other research had indicated that creating lab-grown gametes from human cells was more challenging than for mouse cells. “We still don’t understand enough of the unique biology of human gametogenesis to reproduce Hayashi’s provocative work in mice,” he said.

Study Methods

The study, which has been submitted for publication in a leading journal, relied on a sequence of intricate steps to transform a skin cell, carrying the male XY chromosome combination, into an egg, with the female XX version.

Male skin cells were reprogrammed into a stem cell-like state to create so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The Y-chromosome of these cells was then deleted and replaced by an X chromosome “borrowed” from another cell to produce iPS cells with two identical X chromosomes.

“The trick of this, the biggest trick, is the duplication of the X chromosome,” said Hayashi. “We really tried to establish a system to duplicate the X chromosome.”

Finally, the cells were cultivated in an ovary organoid, a culture system designed to replicate the conditions inside a mouse ovary. When the eggs were fertilised with normal sperm, the scientists obtained about 600 embryos, which were implanted into surrogate mice, resulting in the birth of seven mouse pups. The efficiency of about 1% was lower [although not THAT much lower] than the efficiency achieved with normal female-derived eggs, where about 5% of embryos went on to produce a live birth.

The baby mice appeared healthy, had a normal lifespan, and went on to have offspring as adults. “They look OK, they look to be growing normally, they become fathers,” said Hayashi.

Going Further

He and colleagues are now attempting to replicate the creation of lab-grown eggs using human cells.

Prof Amander Clark, who works on lab-grown gametes at the University of California Los Angeles, said that translating the work into human cells would be a “huge leap”, because scientists are yet to create lab-grown human eggs from female cells.

Scientists have created the precursors of human eggs, but until now the cells have stopped developing before the point of meiosis, a critical step of cell division that is required in the development of mature eggs and sperm. “We’re poised at this bottleneck at the moment,” she said. “The next steps are an engineering challenge. But getting through that could be 10 years or 20 years.”

-via The Guardian (US), 3/8/23

[sadthixx]

doodled a new oc, his name is ghost

he has super strength and mind control powers lol

[cbirt]

Recent research shows that within the domain of synthetic biology, there have been tremendous improvements, especially in designing and engineering biological systems. Plasmids, crucial tools in genetic manipulation, play a pivotal role in this revolution. However, the traditional way of designing and adding notes on the plasmids is tedious and time-consuming. To solve this problem, a team of researchers developed PlasmidGPT, which helps in the design and analysis of plasmids by automating processes.

Plasmids are relatively small, generally circular structures of DNA that are present in bacterial cells and a few other microorganisms, too. These are dissimilar from the main chromosomal DNA and can be self-replicated. Plasmids are influential in the field of genetic engineering for their complex vectors that can retain and replicate extra-chromosomal elements. They are often employed as a means of DNA delivery, synthesis of requisite proteins in a subject organism, alien DNA fragment replication and expression, and even genome editing.

Continue Reading

[nooskadraws]

bioshock brainrot sketchdump

[safaridays]

i love going to the zoo but i worry that there might not be a more insufferable guest to be stuck next to at the zoo than a nonhuman. hey i think what you just said about this animal was wrong so i’m going to tell you EVERYTHING i know about the baird’s tapir okay?

[science-lover33]

Exploring the Marvels of Biological Macromolecules: The Molecular Machinery of Life (Part 3)

Nucleotide Structure: The Building Blocks

Nucleotides, the monomers of nucleic acids, consist of three fundamental components:

1. Phosphate Group (PO4): Provides a negatively charged backbone for the nucleic acid strand.

2. Pentose Sugar: In DNA, it's deoxyribose; in RNA, it's ribose. The sugar moiety forms the framework of the nucleotide.

3. Nitrogenous Base: Adenine (A), Guanine (G), Cytosine (C), Thymine (T) in DNA, and Uracil (U) in RNA. These bases are responsible for the genetic code.

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid): The Repository of Genes

DNA is a double-stranded helical molecule, with each strand composed of a linear sequence of nucleotides. It encodes the genetic information necessary for an organism's development, growth, and functioning. The Watson-Crick base pairing rules—A with T and C with G

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid): The Repository of Genes

DNA is a double-stranded helical molecule, with each strand composed of a linear sequence of nucleotides. It encodes the genetic information necessary for an organism's development, growth, and functioning. The Watson-Crick base pairing rules—A with T and G with C—ensure DNA's complementary and faithful replication.

RNA (Ribonucleic Acid): From DNA's Blueprint to Protein Synthesis

RNA plays diverse roles in the cell, including serving as a messenger (mRNA) for protein synthesis, a structural component of ribosomes (rRNA), and an adapter molecule (tRNA) that brings amino acids to the ribosome during translation. Unlike DNA, RNA is often single-stranded and contains uracil (U) instead of thymine (T).

Genome Organization and Chromosomes

Genomic DNA is organized into chromosomes within the cell nucleus. These structures enable efficient storage, replication, and transmission of genetic information during cell division and reproduction.

Replication and Transcription

DNA replication ensures the faithful duplication of genetic material during cell division, while transcription converts DNA into RNA, providing a template for protein synthesis.

Translation

The cellular machinery, composed of ribosomes and tRNA, reads the mRNA code and assembles amino acids into polypeptides during translation, ultimately forming functional proteins.

Genetic Code

The genetic code, a triplet code of nucleotide sequences (codons), dictates a protein's sequence of amino acids. It is nearly universal, with only minor variations across species.

Epigenetics

Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation and histone modifications, regulate gene expression without altering the underlying DNA sequence, pivotal in development and cell differentiation.

Macromolecular interactions are the essence of cellular life. Within the complex microcosm of a cell, countless molecules engage in precise and choreographed dances, forming intricate networks that govern every facet of biology. These interactions, governed by the principles of biochemistry, are the foundation upon which life's processes are built.

Amino Acids: The Building Blocks

Proteins are composed of amino acids organic molecules that contain an amino group (-NH2), a carboxyl group (-COOH), a hydrogen atom, and a distinctive side chain (R group). There are 20 different amino acids, each with a unique side chain that confers specific properties to the amino acid.

Primary Structure: Amino Acid Sequence

The primary structure of a protein refers to the linear sequence of amino acids in the polypeptide chain. The genetic information in DNA encodes the precise arrangement of amino acids.

Secondary Structure: Folding Patterns

Proteins don't remain linear; they fold into specific three-dimensional shapes. Secondary structures, such as α-helices and β-sheets, result from hydrogen bonding between nearby amino acids along the polypeptide chain.

Tertiary Structure: Spatial Arrangement

The tertiary structure is the overall three-dimensional shape of a protein, determined by interactions between amino acid side chains. These interactions include hydrogen bonds, disulfide bridges, ionic bonds, and hydrophobic interactions.

Quaternary Structure: Multiple Polypeptide Chains

Some proteins, known as quaternary structures, comprise multiple polypeptide chains. These subunits come together to form a functional protein complex. Hemoglobin, with its four subunits, is an example.

Protein Functions: Diverse and Essential

Proteins are involved in an astounding array of functions:

1. Enzymes: Proteins catalyze chemical reactions, increasing the speed at which reactions occur.

2. Structural Proteins: Proteins like collagen provide structural support to tissues and cells.

3. Transport Proteins: Hemoglobin transports oxygen in red blood cells, and membrane transport proteins move molecules across cell membranes.

4. Hormones: Hormonal proteins, such as insulin, regulate various physiological processes.

5. Immune Function: Antibodies are proteins that play a crucial role in the immune system's defense against pathogens.

6. Signaling: Proteins are critical in cell signaling pathways, transmitting information within cells.

Protein Denaturation and Folding

Protein Diversity: The vast diversity of proteins arises from the combinatorial possibilities of amino acid sequences, secondary structure arrangements, and three-dimensional conformations.

Nucleic acids, the remarkable macromolecules that govern all living organisms' genetic information, are life's quintessential molecules. These complex polymers of nucleotides play an unparalleled role in the storage, replication, and expression of genetic information, shaping the development, characteristics, and functions of every living entity on Earth. Let's embark on an exploration of the intricate world of nucleic acids.

Nucleotide Structure: The Building Blocks

Nucleotides, the monomers of nucleic acids, consist of three fundamental components:

1. Phosphate Group (PO4): Provides a negatively charged backbone for the nucleic acid strand.

2. Pentose Sugar: In DNA, it's deoxyribose; in RNA, it's ribose. The sugar moiety forms the framework of the nucleotide.

3. Nitrogenous Base: Adenine (A), Guanine (G), Cytosine (C), Thymine (T) in DNA, and Uracil (U) in RNA. These bases are responsible for the genetic code.

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid): The Repository of Genes

DNA is a double-stranded helical molecule, with each strand composed of a linear sequence of nucleotides. It encodes the genetic information necessary for an organism's development, growth, and functioning. The Watson-Crick base pairing rules—A with T and G with C—ensure DNA's complementary and faithful replication.

RNA (Ribonucleic Acid): From DNA's Blueprint to Protein Synthesis

RNA plays diverse roles in the cell, including serving as a messenger (mRNA) for protein synthesis, a structural component of ribosomes (rRNA), and an adapter molecule (tRNA) that brings amino acids to the ribosome during translation. Unlike DNA, RNA is often single-stranded and contains uracil (U) instead of thymine (T).

Genome Organization and Chromosomes:

Replication and Transcription: DNA replication ensures the faithful duplication of genetic material during cell division, while transcription converts DNA into RNA, providing a template for protein synthesis.

Translation: The cellular machinery, composed of ribosomes and tRNA, reads the mRNA code and assembles amino acids into polypeptides during translation, ultimately forming functional proteins.

Genetic Code: The genetic code, a triplet code of nucleotide sequences (codons), dictates the sequence of amino acids in a protein. It is nearly universal, with only minor variations across species.

Epigenetics: Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation and histone modifications, regulate gene expression without altering the underlying DNA sequence, pivotal in development and cell differentiation.

Macromolecular interactions are the essence of cellular life. Within the complex microcosm of a cell, countless molecules engage in precise and choreographed dances, forming intricate networks that govern every facet of biology. These interactions, governed by the principles of biochemistry, are the foundation upon which life's processes are built.

[boyheros]

are there any fun facts abt ur clones that ud want the average viewer to know?

SO sorry i got this ask when i was super busy and then. forgot. ANYWAYS here we go. crash-course in oc clone basics:

in the context of the story, the human species has been on a major decline for a whiiiiile. going extinct basically. cloning was meant as a sortof stop-gap to try and bolster the population, BUT, making clones wasn't actually the original goal of the whole endeavor, it was making "human facsimiles." they're very similar conceptually but not the same! human faxes are basically the clones you see often in popular media. an exact copy of someone, mind and memories and personality and all. conversely, clones are just. genetic copies of someone, they're completely unique people otherwise. like an identical twin (that you made in a lab, perhaps...) so yeah technically human faxes are leaning into the "trying to obtain immortality" area bc you're trying to make a new version of yourself that'll outlive you. whatever. no one was ever successful in making a true human fax, so clones became the hot new thing.

originally, clones were made test-tube baby style (again, how you see in media lol) BUT it took just as long as a normal pregnancy and was expensive and blah blah blah. eventually a new method was perfected which utilized techniques from 'base black manufacturing,' which was an innovative (nearly) no-waste method of manufacturing. that also was only performed on non-living things, prior to using it for cloning... so now clones are made on cloning machines !! (or sometimes "human facsimile machines," because when they found the new method they tried making faxes again lol. still didn't work). it's also important to me that you know: they aren't grown anymore. they're made. on the machine. you no longer have to wait a pesky 9 months for birth. and they aren't even born

when you donate your DNA, there's a posited rule that only 3 clones of you will EVER be made (3+1, or "three's a crowd" rule) but this often isn't the case depending on lineage. if your clone goes off and fosters a bigass (biological) family, then LIVON isn't gonna introduce more people with the same DNA into the gene pool. the human population is too low to risk that.....so yes LIVON basically monitors everyone they can in order to track this but. don't worry about it....

ok so those were large exposition paragraphs not "fun facts"... so here's a fact that is more fun (hopefully): almost all clones are made with bellybuttons, despite not ever being attached to an umbilical cord or anything. BUT! some clones do lack that feature. Maverick is one such clone lol.

[fili-oeuvre]

PEPPER for Woodnote?

PEPPER - What inspired this world?

The two biggest inspirations were Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Princess Mononoke.

[happy10thousandyears]

I love freaky non romantic dynamics it’s crazy !!!!! When one party is a freak and the other party is normal but tolerants the first guys freakishness

[jcmarchi]

Understanding The ‘Wiring’ of The Human Genome - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/understanding-the-wiring-of-the-human-genome-technology-org/

Understanding The ‘Wiring’ of The Human Genome - Technology Org

If the human genome is like the blueprint for a house, a new study on the non-coding parts of DNA maps the wiring, connecting the lights to their switches.

Around 98.5% of human DNA is non-coding, meaning it isn’t copied to make proteins. A new study has connected many of these non-coding regions to the genes they affect and laid out guidelines for how researchers can continue this work going forward.

Genome – artistic impression. Illustration by Michael S. Helfenbein, Yale University

Understanding the non-coding portion of our DNA is critical for understanding the genetic components of disease, says Steven Reilly, an assistant professor of genetics at Yale School of Medicine who co-led the study.

“When we find mutations in DNA that are associated with some trait or disease, they’re often in these non-coding regions,” said Reilly. Understanding which genes these mutations impact is really critical.”

The study was published in Nature Methods.

For the study, Reilly and his colleagues set out to understand how non-coding regions of DNA known as “enhancers” and “promoters” are linked to genes. Promoters are bits of DNA just upstream of genes that control whether the genes are transcribed into mRNA, which will eventually be turned into protein. Molecules that activate genes bind to promoters to initiate the process. Enhancers are regions of DNA that act as additional control elements for promoters, instructing them where and when to turn on. However, they can be quite far away from the genes they control, making it hard to predict which genes that a mutation in an enhancer might impact.

Essentially, these genetic regulators help turn genes on and off.

The research is part of a 20-year-long project called the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements, or ENCODE, Consortium. The National Human Genome Research Institute funds it and includes over 30 institutions.

In earlier phases of the project, researchers mapped out where enhancers and promoters are located in the human genome. Reilly said the genome is something like a blueprint for a house; he said that discerning the location of enhancers and promoters would be like locating where the light switches are in a house. This study, he said, was about identifying the wiring plan for the house, to know which lights — or genes — those switches turned off and on, with promoters comparable to a regular light switch and enhancers more like a dimmer knob.

To do this, the researchers used CRISPR, a gene-targeting tool, to turn off small sections of DNA, one at a time, and then observed what happened to genes. Normally, CRISPR homes in on a specific DNA sequence and cuts it. Here, the researchers used a modified version tethered to a molecule that silenced nearby DNA rather than cutting it.

This, Reilly said, essentially allowed them to flick the light switches on and off.

And they did this with large parts of the genome, not just with what they suspected were enhancers or promoters.

“The good news was that the only things that seemed to do anything were the things we’d already mapped out as enhancers or promoters,” said Reilly. “So there weren’t some secret light switches we hadn’t known about. That confirms that when we’re looking at a DNA variation that might impact disease, the enhancers and promoter maps we have are the places to look.”

In a more surprising finding, the researchers discovered that individual enhancers could affect multiple genes. It was as if one light switch turned on several lights.

“We originally had tended to think that one enhancer was affecting one gene, but we found it was really common for one enhancer to impact many genes,” said Reilly. “That says that if you have a mutation in an enhancer that’s associated with a disease, you might need to be looking for several impacted genes, not just one.”

Together, the researchers performed these experiments on more than 540,000 sections of DNA.

Doing this work together and systematically allowed the group to find patterns and identify best practices that they likely wouldn’t have through separate experiments, Reilly said.

The group was collectively able to determine the best way to go about these particular CRISPR experiments, identifying which guides should be used to direct CRISPR and which analysis methods are most accurate. This will help other researchers do these types of experiments in their DNA regions of interest more effectively and more efficiently, said Reilly.

“Particularly if researchers are working with patient cell samples, which they may only have a certain amount of, they’ll want to use our guidelines to maximize their chances of linking enhancers to their target genes,” he said.

Additionally, the researchers found that when using this type of CRISPR screening, it matters which of the two DNA strands you target.

“Depending on which strand you target, you will get different results of how big of an effect the CRISPR-mediated DNA repression has on genes,” said Reilly. “Knowing these differences will allow researchers to design the right analysis methods.”

This particular finding wouldn’t have been possible without the large collaborative effort of this work, he added.

“We only saw this because we were analyzing hundreds of these experiments. You need to assemble really large datasets to see these patterns,” said Reilly. “This has been the theme of the human genome work from the beginning. The genome is huge. One person or one lab can’t tackle it all. And this work has been a cool example of how large-scale collaborations work and their necessity for this monumental task of understanding the human genome.”

The ENCODE Consortium, which was launched in 2003, is coming to an end with many of its main goals achieved. Going forward, Reilly aims to use the best practices that have come out of this work to do these types of analyses in more complicated systems. One goal is to better understand how many genes are involved in the development of disease or in conferring observable traits like height.

“We have a good sense of what DNA variants exist, but we don’t have a good sense of how those variants affect genes,” said Reilly. “This study gives us a roadmap to do those experiments better.”

Source: Yale University

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[covenawhite66]

Cell engineering is currently based on two key approaches: genetically remodeling existing cells to give them new functions (more flexible but also able to reproduce) and building synthetic cells from scratch (which can't replicate but have limited biological functions).

These cyborg cells are the result of a new, third strategy. The researchers took bacterial cells as their foundation and added elements from an artificial polymer.

The cells being non-replication is important. For artificial cells to be useful, they need to be carefully controlled

Living cells possess the unique advantage of being highly adaptable and versatile. To date, living cells have been successfully repurposed for a wide variety of applications, including living therapeutics,bioremediation, and drug and gene delivery.

We envisioned the creation of a bio-micromachine chassis with similar capabilities as natural bacterial cells, but with enhanced characteristics provided by their modification with a synthetic material

[daydreamerdrew]

The Adventures of Captain America (1991) #1

[vivaciouslyvibing]