Posted in bioengineering, biotech/medical | Leave a Comment on Synthetic extracellular matrices with tailored adhesiveness and degradability support lumen formation during angiogenic sprouting
Current tissue engineering strategies lack materials that promote angiogenesis. Here the authors develop a microfluidic in vitro model in which chemokine-guided endothelial cell sprouting into a tunable hydrogel is followed by the formation of perfusable lumens to determine the material properties that regulate angiogenesis.
Modified RNA CRISPR boosts gene knockdown in human cells.
In the latest of ongoing efforts to expand technologies for modifying genes and their expression, researchers in the lab of Neville Sanjana, PhD, at the New York Genome Center (NYGC) and New York University (NYU) have developed chemically modified guide RNAs for a CRISPR system that targets RNA instead of DNA. These chemically-modified guide RNAs significantly enhance the ability to target – trace, edit, and/or knockdown – RNA in human cells.
Longevity. Technology: In the study published in Cell Chemical Biology, the research team explores a range of different RNA modifications and details how the modified guides increase efficiencies of CRISPR activity from 2-to 5-fold over unmodified guides. They also show that the optimised chemical modifications extend CRISPR targeting activity from 48 hours to four days.
Increasing the efficiencies and “life” of CRISPR-Cas13 guides is of critical value to researchers and drug developers, allowing for better gene knockdown and more time to study how the gene influences other genes in related pathways.
The researchers worked in collaboration with scientists at Synthego Corporation and New England BioLabs, bringing together a diverse team with expertise in enzyme purification and RNA chemistry. To apply these optimised chemical modifications, the research team targeted cell surface receptors in human T cells from healthy donors and a “universal” segment of the genetic sequence shared by all known variants of the RNA virus SARS-COV-2, which is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, a young woman with sickle cell anemia became the first person in the United States to have her cells altered with CRISPR gene editing technology. Here’s what that means for the future treatment of genetic diseases.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vCQm_2JgLbk
DeepMind CEO and co-founder. “We believe this work represents the most significant contribution AI has made to advancing the state of scientific knowledge to date. And I think it’s a great illustration and example of the kind of benefits AI can bring to society. We’re just so excited to see what the community is going to do with this.” https://www.futuretimeline.net/images/socialmedia/
AlphaFold is an artificial intelligence (AI) program that uses deep learning to predict the 3D structure of proteins. Developed by DeepMind, a London-based subsidiary of Google, it made headlines in November 2020 when competing in the Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP). This worldwide challenge is held every two years by the scientific community and is the most well-known protein modelling benchmark. Participants must “blindly” predict the 3D structures of different proteins, and their computational methods are subsequently compared with real-world laboratory results.
The CASP challenge has been held since 1994 and uses a metric known as the Global Distance Test (GDT), ranging from 0 to 100. Winners in previous years had tended to hover around the 30 to 40 mark, with a score of 90 considered to be equivalent to an experimentally determined result. In 2018, however, the team at DeepMind achieved a median of 58.9 for the GDT and an overall score of 68.5 across all targets, by far the highest of any algorithm.
Then in 2020, version 2.0 of their AlphaFold program competed in the CASP, winning once again – this time with even greater accuracy. The AlphaFold 2.0 achieved a median of 92.4 across all targets, with its average margin of error comparable to the width of an atom (0.16 nanometres). Andrei Lupas, biologist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany who assessed the performances of each team in CASP, said of AlphaFold: “This will change medicine. It will change research. It will change bioengineering. It will change everything.”
“Our study raises the possibility of using therapeutic drugs, gene editing, or other strategies to make epigenetic modifications that tap into the latent regenerative capacity of inner ear cells as a way to restore hearing,” said Segil. “Similar epigenetic modifications may also prove useful in other non-regenerating tissues, such as the retina, kidney, lung, and heart.”
Scientists from the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Neil Segil have identified a natural barrier to the regeneration of the inner ear’s sensory cells, which are lost in hearing and balance disorders. Overcoming this barrier may be a first step in returning inner ear cells to a newborn-like state that’s primed for regeneration, as described in a new study published in Developmental Cell.
“Permanent hearing loss affects more than 60 percent of the population that reaches retirement age,” said Segil, who is a Professor in the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, and the USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. “Our study suggests new gene engineering approaches that could be used to channel some of the same regenerative capability present in embryonic inner ear cells.”
In the inner ear, the hearing organ, which is the cochlea, contains two major types of sensory cells: “hair cells” that have hair-like cellular projections that receive sound vibrations; and so-called “supporting cells” that play important structural and functional roles.
Despite years of efforts, malaria remains a major health problem. The mosquito-borne parasitic disease sickens more than 200 million people every year and kills more than 400000, many of whom are children.
For the first time, scientists have shown that a new kind of genetic engineering can crash populations of malaria-spreading mosquitoes.
In the landmark study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications, researchers placed the genetically modified mosquitoes in a special laboratory that simulated the conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, where they spread the deadly disease.
The male mosquitoes were engineered with a sequence of DNA known as a “gene drive” that can rapidly transmit a deleterious mutation that essentially wipes out populations of the insects.
Humanity has a plastic problem, but who said the problem couldn’t also be tasty? Scientists are trying to come up with creative solutions to address the ever-growing issue every day, with some even converting plastic bottles into vanillin using bacteria. Most recently, two scientists have echoed this sentiment and won the $1.18 million (1 million euro) 2021 Future Insight Prize in the process by creating a food ‘generator’ concept that turns plastics into protein.
The names behind the project, which was initially funded by a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) cooperative agreement award for $7.2 million over four years, are Ting Lu, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Stephen Techtmann, associate professor of biological sciences at Michigan Technological University.
Their goal was to improve a process for converting plastic trash into protein powder and lubricants using a combination of chemicals and high heat (pyrolysis). The two scientists call their project a food ‘generator.’
The result is optogenetics, a mind-controlling technique that’s become one of neuroscience’s most popular tools. Here, scientists use genetic engineering to put different types of algae proteins into the brains of mice. They can then activate a neuron with an implanted fiber optic cable by pulsing certain wavelengths of light. These enhanced brain cells react as they would naturally, generating an electrical signal that’s passed down and interpreted by the mouse’s brain.
Sound familiar?
If an algae protein can artificially allow neurons in the brain to translate light into electrical information, why can’t it do the same for damaged eyes?
Bioprinting in seconds.
Biofabrication technologies, including stereolithography and extrusion-based printing, are revolutionizing the creation of complex engineered tissues. The current paradigm in bioprinting relies on the additive layer-by-layer deposition and assembly of repetitive building blocks, typically cell-laden hydrogel fibers or voxels, single cells, or cellular aggregates. The scalability of these additive manufacturing technologies is limited by their printing velocity, as lengthy biofabrication processes impair cell functionality. Overcoming such limitations, the volumetric bioprinting of clinically relevant sized, anatomically shaped constructs, in a time frame ranging from seconds to tens of seconds is described. An optical-tomography-inspired printing approach, based on visible light projection, is developed to generate cell-laden tissue constructs with high viability (85%) from gelatin-based photoresponsive hydrogels. Free-form architectures, difficult to reproduce with conventional printing, are obtained, including anatomically correct trabecular bone models with embedded angiogenic sprouts and meniscal grafts. The latter undergoes maturation in vitro as the bioprinted chondroprogenitor cells synthesize neo-fibrocartilage matrix. Moreover, free-floating structures are generated, as demonstrated by printing functional hydrogel-based ball-and-cage fluidic valves. Volumetric bioprinting permits the creation of geometrically complex, centimeter-scale constructs at an unprecedented printing velocity, opening new avenues for upscaling the production of hydrogel-based constructs and for their application in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and soft robotics.
💠 Japanese researchers have created a “nose” mosquito that can detect odors from tiny droplets of liquid droplets. The research could lead to the creation of Smell-O-Vision for machines and a means of diagnosing early cancer, they say. Japanese researchers have created a “nose” that can detect different odors at the same time. The team used two bubbles, each filled with oil, broken horizontally, to create a squinted figure-eight. They hope to use it to develop an artificial nose in the future.
Researchers have developed a “bionic nose” that can detect odor molecules. The team hopes to use the device as an inexpensive way to diagnose the early stages of illness. Eventually, the team wants to use their bionic nose for cancer and other health issues. They hope to make the device available to the public soon.
Thanks and Enjoy 🔥 🔥
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🎥 #BioEngineering #Mosquitoes #Cells.
Sources:
⚉ https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2014.14904#:~:text=The%20human%20nose%20has%20roughly, report%20today%20in%20Science1.
⚉ https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/uot-hdy011121.php.
⚉ https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/3/eabd2013
