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Category: biotech/medical

Scientists have established a new method to image proteins that could lead to new discoveries in disease through biological tissue and cell analysis and the development of new biomaterials that can be used for the next generation of drug delivery systems and medical devices.

Scientists from the University of Nottingham in collaboration with the University of Birmingham and The National Physical laboratory have used the state-of-the-art 3D OrbiSIMS instrument to facilitate the first matrix- and label-free in situ assignment of intact proteins at surfaces with minimal sample preparation. Their research has been published today in Nature Communications.

The University of Nottingham is the first University in the world to own a 3D OrbiSIMS instrument. It is able to facilitate an unprecedented level of mass spectral molecular analysis for a range of materials (hard and soft matter, biological cells and tissues). The facility in Nottingham also has freezing cryo-preparation facilities that enable biological samples to be maintained close to their native state as frozen-hydrated to complement the more commonly applied but more disruptive freeze drying and sample fixation. When the surface sensitivity, high mass/spatial resolution are combined with a depth profiling sputtering beam, the instrument becomes an extremely powerful tool for 3D chemical analysis as demonstrated in this recent work.

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These findings […] strongly suggest that high levels of iron in the blood reduces our healthy years of life, and keeping these levels in check could prevent age-related damage.

Genes linked to ageing that could help explain why some people age at different rates to others have been identified by scientists.

The international study using genetic data from more than a million people suggests that maintaining healthy levels of in the blood could be a key to ageing better and living longer.

The findings could accelerate the development of drugs to reduce , extend healthy years of life and increase the chances of living to old age free of , the researchers say.

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Whole-body positron emission tomography combined with computed tomography (PET/CT) is a cornerstone in the management of lymphoma (cancer in the lymphatic system). PET/CT scans are used to diagnose disease and then to monitor how well patients respond to therapy. However, accurately classifying every single lymph node in a scan as healthy or cancerous is a complex and time-consuming process. Because of this, detailed quantitative treatment monitoring is often not feasible in clinical day-to-day practice.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have recently developed a deep-learning model that can perform this task automatically. This could free up valuable physician time and make quantitative PET/CT treatment monitoring possible for a larger number of patients.

To acquire PET/CT scans, patients are injected with a sugar molecule marked with radioactive fluorine-18 (18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose). When the fluorine atom decays, it emits a positron that instantly annihilates with an electron in its immediate vicinity. This annihilation process emits two back-to-back photons, which the scanner detects and uses to infer the location of the radioactive decay.

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Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador interviews Dr. Hugh Herr, Associate Professor MIT Media Lab and head of the Biomechatronics group, @MIT Media Lab.

Ira Pastor comments:

Dr. Hugh Herr, is Associate Professor MIT Media Lab, heads the Biomechatronics group at the MIT Media Lab, as well as the Center for Extreme Bionics at MIT, and is creating bionic limbs that emulate the function of natural limbs.

In 2011, TIME magazine coined him the “Leader of the Bionic Age” because of his revolutionary work in the emerging field of biomechatronics – technology that marries human physiology with electromechanics.

A double amputee himself, Dr Herr is responsible for breakthrough advances in bionic limbs that provide greater mobility and new hope to those with physical disabilities. He is the author and co-author of more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and patents, chronicling the science and technology behind his many innovations. These publications span the scientific fields of biomechanics and biological motion control, as well as the technological innovations of human rehabilitation and augmentation technologies.

Dr. Herr’s Biomechatronics group has developed gait-adaptive knee prostheses for transfemoral amputees and variable impedance ankle-foot orthoses for patients suffering from drop foot, a gait pathology caused by stroke, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis. He has also designed his own bionic limbs, the world’s first bionic lower leg called the BiOM Ankle System.

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Artificial intelligence is being developed that can analyze whether it’s own decision or prediction is reliable.

…An AI that is aware/determine or analyze it’s own weaknesses. Basically, it should help doctors or passengers of the AI know quickly the risk involved.

How might The Terminator have played out if Skynet had decided it probably wasn’t responsible enough to hold the keys to the entire US nuclear arsenal? As it turns out, scientists may just have saved us from such a future AI-led apocalypse, by creating neural networks that know when they’re untrustworthy.

These deep learning neural networks are designed to mimic the human brain by weighing up a multitude of factors in balance with each other, spotting patterns in masses of data that humans don’t have the capacity to analyse.

While Skynet might still be some way off, AI is already making decisions in fields that affect human lives like autonomous driving and medical diagnosis, and that means it’s vital that they’re as accurate as possible. To help towards this goal, this newly created neural network system can generate its confidence level as well as its predictions.

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Modern microscopes used for biological imaging are expensive, are located in specialized laboratories and require highly qualified staff. To research novel, creative approaches to address urgent scientific issues—for example in the fight against infectious diseases such as COVID-19—is thus primarily reserved for scientists at well-equipped research institutions in rich countries. A young research team from the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) in Jena, the Friedrich Schiller University and Jena University Hospital wants to change this: The researchers have developed an optical toolbox to build microscopes for a few hundred euros that deliver high-resolution images comparable to commercial microscopes that cost a hundred to a thousand times more. With open-source blueprints, components from the 3D printer and smartphone camera, the UC2 (You. See. Too.) modular system can be combined specifically in the way the research question requires—from long-term observation of living organisms in the incubator to a toolbox for optics education. The research team presents its development on November 25, 2020 in the renowned journal Nature Communications.

The basic building block of the UC2 system is a simple 3D printable cube with an edge length of 5 centimeters, which can host a variety of components such as lenses, LEDs or cameras. Several such cubes are plugged on a magnetic raster base plate. Cleverly arranged, the modules thus result in a powerful optical instrument. An optical concept according to which focal planes of adjacent lenses coincide is the basis for most of the complex optical setups such as modern microscopes. With the UC2 toolbox, the research team of Ph.D. students at the lab of Prof. Dr. Rainer Heintzmann, Leibniz IPHT and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, shows how this inherently modular process can be understood intuitively in hands-on-experiments. In this way, UC2 also provides users without technical training with an optical tool that they can use, modify and expand—depending on what they are researching.

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RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are critical effectors of gene expression, and as such their malfunction underlies the origin of many diseases. RBPs can recognize hundreds of transcripts and form extensive regulatory networks that help to maintain cell homeostasis. System-wide unbiased identification of RBPs has increased the number of recognized RBPs into the four-digit range and revealed new paradigms: from the prevalence of structurally disordered RNA-binding regions with roles in the formation of membraneless organelles to unsuspected and potentially pervasive connections between intermediary metabolism and RNA regulation. Together with an increasingly detailed understanding of molecular mechanisms of RBP function, these insights are facilitating the development of new therapies to treat malignancies. Here, we provide an overview of RBPs involved in human genetic disorders, both Mendelian and somatic, and discuss emerging aspects in the field with emphasis on molecular mechanisms of disease and therapeutic interventions.

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