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12/05/2021
New Gene-Editing Tool Could Rival CRISPR 🧬🔬🧫
A new tool uses segments of bacterial DNA to perform millions of genetic experiments simultaneously. These segments are known as retrons and used to produce fragments of single-stranded DNA. Created by Researchers from the Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering (), called the (Retron Library Recombineering) RLR technique.
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CRISPR-Cas9 is the primary technique in gene-editing, gives researchers the tools needed to alter DNA sequences. While this technique has a variety of potential applications, including life-saving treatments for various illnesses, CRISPR has its limitations. The Cas9 enzyme, known as “molecular scissors”, which slices segments of DNA, often cuts non-targeted sites and can be toxic to cells. CRISPR-Cas9 are not easily delivered in large quantities, limiting studies and increases experiment time.
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The newly introduced RLR technique proved to be successful in large-scale genetic experiments. Harvard researchers tested RLR on E. coli bacteria to locate antibiotic resistance mutations. Researchers explained how they were able to randomly chop up a bacterial genome, turn genetic fragments into single-stranded DNA in situ and use them to screen millions of sequences simultaneously. By sequencing retron barcodes instead of individually, making the process a lot faster.
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Do you support gene editing in humans or are you against it?
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✍️ Eduardo Cortez ()
📰 Engadget ()
🔸 Mariella Moon (May 2021) “Harvard scientists create gene-editing tool that could rival CRISPR”
# biologist
27/04/2021
Gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy: nearing final tests 💪🧬🧪
By next year, two companies could have gene therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in late-stage clinical trials. The start of those studies will mark the culmination of years of research, a milestone that could finally put a gene therapy for the debilitating disease within reach.
Both treatments, along with a third a little further behind, hold the potential to change Duchenne's course, driving excitement and hope of a potential breakthrough for patients, most of whom don't have good treatment options.
Three companies — Sarepta, Pfizer and Solid Biosciences — have similar Duchenne gene therapies in human testing.
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✍️ Astrobiotechnology ()
🖼️ Astrobiotechnology ()
📰 Source: BioPharma Dive
26/04/2021
Natural Biohack for better health: love ❤️🩺🧬
Researches at Harvard Medical School () did a survey of 127,545 American adults found that married men are healthier than men who were never married or whose marriages ended in divorce or widowhood.
They learned that married man:
👴 Live longer
❤️ Less likely to have coronary diseases
🧠 Reduced risk of Alzheimer's
🩸Improved blood sugar levels
🩺Better outcomes for hospitalized patients
Are you ready to sai "I do" ?
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✍️ Astro Biotechnology ()
🖼️ Harvard Medical School ()
📰 Source: Harvard Medical School ()
🔸 Harvard Health, “Marriage and men's health”
26/04/2021
FDA, CDC support resuming use of J&J vaccine after advisory panel vote 🦠💉🧪
A group of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said vaccinations with Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus shot should be resumed in the U.S., deciding in a Friday meeting that updated labeling would be sufficient to alert healthcare providers and the public to the risk of a rare but serious side effect.
The advisers voted 10-4 in favor of the recommendation, clearing the way for the CDC and Food and Drug Administration to lift their recommended pause on vaccinations just two hours later.
Would you take the J&J shot?
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📰 Source: CDC ()
26/04/2021
DNA robots designed in minutes instead of days 🧬🤖⌛
Researchers took a big step toward that future by developing a new tool that can design much more complex DNA robots and nanodevices than were ever possible before in a fraction of the time.
The software helps researchers design ways to take tiny strands of DNA and combine them into complex structures with parts like rotors and hinges that can move and complete a variety of tasks, including drug delivery.
Can you foresee the use for this kind of experiment?
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📰 Source: Science Daitly
🔸Huang (April, 2021), “Integrated computer-aided engineering and design for DNA assemblies”
23/04/2021
First monkey–human embryos reignite debate over hybrid animals 🐒🧪👶
Scientists have successfully grown monkey embryos containing human cells for the first time — the latest milestone in a rapidly advancing field that has drawn ethical questions.
In the work, published on 15 April in Cell () the team injected monkey embryos with human stem cells and watched them develop. They observed human and monkey cells divide and grow together in a dish, with at least 3 embryos surviving to 19 days after fertilization. “The overall message is that every embryo contained human cells that proliferate and differentiate to a different extent,” says Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a developmental biologist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and one of the researchers who led the work.
Researchers hope that some human–animal hybrids — known as chimaeras — could provide better models in which to test drugs, and be used to grow human organs for transplants. Members of this research team were the first to show in 20192 that they could grow monkey embryos in a dish for up to 20 days after fertilization. In 2017, they reported a series of other hybrids: pig embryos grown with human cells, cow embryos grown with human cells, and rat embryos grown with mouse cells.
What do you think about hybrid animals?
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✍️ Astrobiotechnology ()
🖼️ NPR ()
🗃️ Source: Cell ()
🔸 Tan et al (April, 2021) , “Chimeric contribution of human extended pluripotent stem cells to monkey embryos ex vivo”
Tardive Dyskinesia 🧠⚡😐
Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a movement disorder characterized by uncontrolled facial movements, such as repetitive tongue movements, chewing or sucking motions, and involuntarily making faces.
Sequence offering insight into the science of tardive dyskinesia, a neurological syndrome caused by the long-term use of neuroleptic drugs.
When dopamine receptors are blocked, new hypersensitive dopamine receptors rise up from the postsynaptic membrane. As a result, the once-rejected dopamine binds to these new receptors and leads to excessive signaling -- which impacts motor areas of the brain and causes repetitive, involuntary movements.
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✍️ Astrobiotechnology ()
🖼️ Hybrid Medical ()
📰 Very Well Mind Cell ()
🔸 Purse et al (September, 20191) , “Myelin Loss Is a Major Factor in Age-Related Brain Deterioration”
22/04/2021
NIH awards grants to support bacteriophage therapy research🦵💉💦
NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (), awarded $2.5 million in grants to 12 institutes around the world to support research on bacteriophage therapy, an emerging field that could yield new ways to fight antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.
A 2019 report from CDC found that antibiotic-resistant pathogens cause more than 2.8 million infections in the U.S. each year and more than 35,000 people die. Bacteriophages (or "phages") are viruses that can kill or incapacitate specific kinds of bacteria while leaving other bacteria and human cells unharmed.
The recipients of the awards are as follows:
🎓 University of Pittsburgh ()
🔍 PhagePro, Inc. (Boston)
🎓 University of Connecticut ()
🎓 Georgia Institute of Technology ()
🎓 University of Wisconsin-Madison ()
🎓 Texas A&M Agrilife Research ()
🎓 Queens College, City University of New York ()
🎓 Harvard School of Public Health ()
🔍 Guild Associates, Inc.
🔍 Geneva Foundation ()
🎓 University of Alabama at Birmingham ()
🎓 Albert Einstein College of Medicine ()
What do you think about “Phage” therapies ?
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✍️ Astro Biotechnology ()
🖼️ Farid Ghanbari ()
📰 National Institutes of Health ()
New Hyaluronic Acid Therapy Presents Chemical and Mechanical Cues Healing Injured Joint Cartilage 🦵💉💦
A new study reports the development of a hyaluronic acid hydrogel system designed to interlock with the affected articular cartilage like fingers in clasped hands. This securely seals the opposing surface of the affected cartilage.
The interdigitating reinforcement restores tissue mass in and around the affected area and re-establishes mechanical signals similar to cartilage cells (chondrocytes) in the original tissue.
The team combined the hyaluronic acid hydrogel system with an injection of mesenchymal stem cells and stromal cells, to promote the formation of a living barrier on the cartilage surface to protect it from further injury. Comparing models that received the treatment to ones that did not, the researchers found that treated models formed a thicker layer of protective tissue that could protect the cartilage’s structure and preserve function.
Do you know anyone that could benefit from this research? Tag them on this good news!
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✍️ Astrobiotechnology ()
🖼️ Astrobiotechnology ()
📰 Source: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
🔸 Patel et al (April, 2021), “Stabilization of Damaged Articular Cartilage with Hydrogel‐Mediated Reinforcement and Sealing”
16/04/2021
Myelin Loss Shown To Play A Significant Role in Age-Related Brain Deterioration 🧠💊🧬
A team of scientists at the University of Portsmouth has identified myelin loss to be one of the significant factors of age-related brain deterioration.
The study, published in Aging Cell, shows that there is increasing evidence that myelin disruption is an important factor that contributes to the age-related loss of brain plasticity and repair responses. The loss of myelin is shown to be the cause of cognitive decline and is central to several neurodegenerative diseases, such as Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.
The study found that the cells which are responsible for replenishing lost myelin, become less efficient with age and identified a key gene that is most affected by aging, which in turn reduces the cells' ability to restore lost myelin.
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✍️ Siddhant Kamat(
🖼️ Image Source ()
📰 Source: Website/Publication ()
🔸 Rivera et. al (March, 2021) , “Article Title” by Journalist ()
-19
🎓 Siddhant Kamat is a biotechnology graduate from the University of Mumbai and a member of our Internship Program.
📬 Email your resume to [email protected] to apply.
The Biotech Show 🧬🧪🔬
We are very excited to introduce you to The Biotech Show - International edition.
We will showcase industry trends, interesting research and biotech news coming from speakers all over the world.
Let us know what you would like to know more!
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A new handheld 3D printer can deposit sheets of skin to cover large burn wounds – and its “bio ink” can accelerate the healing process 🖨️🤕🔥
The device, developed by a team of researchers from U of T Engineering and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, covers wounds with a uniform sheet of biomaterial, stripe by stripe. The bio ink dispensed by the roller is composed of mesenchymal stroma cells (MSCs) — stem cells that differentiate into specialized cell types depending on their environment. In this case, the MSC material promotes skin regeneration and reduces scarring.
The project is led by Richard Cheng (IBBME PhD candidate), under the supervision of Professor Axel Guenther (MIE), and in close collaboration with Dr. Marc Jeschke, director of the Ross Tilley Burn Centre, and his team at Sunnybrook Hospital. Their successful in-vivo trials on full-thickness wounds are reported in the journal Biofabrication.
The paper is a major step forward for the team, which unveiled the first prototype of the skin printer in 2018. The device was believed to be the first device of its kind to form tissue in situ, depositing and setting in place in two minutes or less.
Do you think 3D printers are the future of biotissues?
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✍️ The happy Broadcast ()
🖼️ University of Toronto ()
📰 Source: University of Toronto Engineering news ()
🔸 Publication, “Handheld instrument for wound-conformal delivery of skin precursor sheets improves healing in full-thickness burns ” by Journalist
Generation of Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Functional Enterocyte-Like Cells for Pharmacokinetic Studies 🧬🧫🧪
Shinpei Yoshida aimed aimed to establish an in vitro differentiation procedure to generate matured small intestinal cells mimicking human small intestine from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). They previously reported the efficient generation of CDX2-expressing intestinal progenitor cells from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) using 6-bromoindirubin-3'-oxime (BIO) and (3,5-difluorophenylacetyl)-L-alanyl-L-2-phenylglycine tert-butyl ester (DAPT) to treat
definitive endodermal cells.
Shinpei Yoshida demonstrate the generation of enterocyte-like cells by culturing human iPSC-derived intestinal progenitor cells on a collagen vitrigel membrane (CVM) and treating cells with a simple maturation medium containing BIO, DMSO, dexamethasone, and activated vitamin D3. Functional tests further confirmed that these iPSC-derived enterocyte-like cells exhibit P-gp- and BCRP-mediated efflux and cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4)-mediated metabolism.
It was concluded that hiPS cell-derived enterocyte-like cells can be used as a model for the evaluation of drug transport and metabolism studies in the human small intestine
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✍️ Astro Biotechnology ()
🖼️ Astro Biotechnology ()
📰 Source: Science Direct (.direct)
🔸 Shinpei Yoshida et al., “Generation of Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Functional Enterocyte-Like Cells for Pharmacokinetic Studies”
13/04/2021
FDA approves first test of CRISPR to correct genetic defect causing sickle cell disease 🔬🧬🩸
Mobilizing colleagues in the then-new Innovative Genome Institute (IGI) — a joint research collaboration between the University of California (), Berkeley (), and UC San Francisco () — they sought to repair the single mutation that makes red blood cells warp and clog arteries, causing excruciating pain and often death. Available treatments today typically involve regular transfusions, though bone marrow transplants can cure those who can find a matched donor.
After six years of work, that experimental treatment has now been approved for clinical trials by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (), enabling the first tests in humans of a CRISPR-based therapy to directly correct the mutation in the beta-globin gene responsible for sickle cell disease. Beta-globin is one of the proteins in the hemoglobin complex responsible for carrying oxygen throughout the body.
The trials, which are expected to take four years, will be led by physicians at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland () and UCLA’s Broad Stem Cell Research Center () who plan to begin this summer to enroll six adults and three adolescents with severe sickle cell disease.
The IGI’s clinical diagnostics laboratory, which was built under Doudna’s leadership to provide free COVID-19 testing to the Berkeley community, will play a key role in analytical support for the trial by developing diagnostics to monitor patient well-being and track the efficiency of the treatment.
“We are motivated to work toward a cure that can be accessible and affordable to patients worldwide,” said Doudna, UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology and of chemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. “The launch of this trial is an essential first step on that path.”
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✍️ Astro Biotechnology ()
🖼️ Innovative Genomics Institute, UC Berkeley ()
📰 Source: News Berkley ())
Prime editing in mice reveals the essentiality of a single base in driving tissue-specific gene expression 🔬🧬🦠
Background
Most single nucleotide variants (SNVs) occur in noncoding sequence where millions of transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) reside. Here, a comparative analysis of CRISPR-mediated homology-directed repair (HDR) versus the recently reported prime editing 2 (PE2) system was carried out in mice over a TFBS called a CArG box in the Tspan2 promoter.
Results
Quantitative RT-PCR showed loss of Tspan2 mRNA in aorta and bladder, but not heart or brain, of mice homozygous for an HDR-mediated three base pair substitution in the Tspan2 CArG box. Using the same protospacer, mice homozygous for a PE2-mediated single-base substitution in the Tspan2 CArG box displayed similar cell-specific loss of Tspan2 mRNA; expression of an overlapping long noncoding RNA was also nearly abolished in aorta and bladder. Immuno-RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization validated loss of Tspan2 in vascular smooth muscle cells of HDR and PE2 CArG box mutant mice. Targeted sequencing demonstrated variable frequencies of on-target editing in all PE2 and HDR founders. However, whereas no on-target indels were detected in any of the PE2 founders, all HDR founders showed varying levels of on-target indels. Off-target analysis by targeted sequencing revealed mutations in many HDR founders, but none in PE2 founders.
Conclusions
PE2 directs high-fidelity editing of a single base in a TFBS leading to cell-specific loss in expression of an mRNA/long noncoding RNA gene pair. The PE2 platform expands the genome editing toolbox for modeling and correcting relevant noncoding SNVs in the mouse.
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✍️ Crisp Daily (.daily)
🖼️
🗃️ Source: Genome Biology ()
🔸 Gao et al (March, 2021), “Prime editing in mice reveals the essentiality of a single base in driving tissue-specific gene expression”
How COVID-19 Causes Loss of Smell 🦠👃👅
Temporary loss of smell, or anosmia, is the main neurological symptom and one of the earliest and most commonly reported indicators of COVID-19. Studies suggest it better predicts the disease than other well-known symptoms such as fever and cough, but the underlying mechanisms for loss of smell in patients with COVID-19 have been unclear.
Now, an international team of researchers led by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School () has identified the olfactory cell types in the upper nasal cavity most vulnerable to infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Surprisingly, sensory neurons that detect and transmit the sense of smell to the brain are not among the vulnerable cell types.
Do you want to know more?
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✍️ Astro Biotechnology ()
🖼️ Design Cells ()
📰 Source: Harvard Med School (@)
🔸 Brann, et al (April, 2020), “How COVID-19 Causes Loss of Smell”
Crying human tear glands grown in the lab 🔬💧😢
Researchers from the Clevers lab and the UMCU (umcu.international) were able to grow miniature human tear glands that actually cry! The organoids serve as a model to study how tear glands (fail to) produce tears and hold promise for the identification of new treatment options for patients with tear gland disorders.
The video shows the human tear gland organoids that cry in response to stimulation with noradrenaline. The organoids shed their tears on the inside of the organoid, the lumen, causing them to swell up like a balloon.
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✍ Hubrecht Institute ()
🖼️
🗃️ Hubrecht Institute
🔸 Hans Clevers (March, 2020), “Crying human tear glands grown in the lab”
Killer T cell Attacking Cancer 🧬🦠🔫
Volume up! 🔊
This is the immune system defending T cell attacking a cancer cell. Alex Ritter, a PhD student at Cambridge () shot this “using an Andor Revolution spinning disk system with an Olympus microscope.” The T cell, about one-tenth the width of a human hair, is being shown at 92 times its actual speed.
Cytotoxic T cells are very precise and efficient killers. They are able to destroy infected or cancerous cells, without destroying healthy cells surrounding them…
By understanding how this works, we can develop ways to control killer cells. This will allow us to find ways to improve cancer therapies, and ameliorate autoimmune diseases caused when killer cells run amok and attack healthy cells in our bodies.
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✍️ Astro Biotechnology ()
🖼️ Cambridge University ()
📰 Source: Website/Publication ()
🔸 Ritter, “Under the Microscope”.
Oil Droplets on a soap film 🔬🧼💧🌈
Fascinating rainbow soap on a thin film of water in this reflected light micrograph was the winner.
Interested in doing it yourself?
💧 Oil droplets on a soap film
💡 Reflected light
🔬4X (Objective Lens Magnification)
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✍️ Karl Gaff
🖼️
📷 Source:
🔸 Nikon Small World in Motion, (2020) by
Study Finds Nerve Cells Control Their Own Release of “Happy Hormone” Dopamine 🔬🧪😃
Researchers led by a team at NYU Grossman School of Medicine () have applied Botox to individual neurons, to help demonstrate how neurons control their own release of dopamine (DA), a chemical messenger involved in motivation, memory, and movement.
Through their studies, the team showed that feedback from individual nerve cells controls the release of dopamine. The findings indicate that dopamine-releasing brain cells respond to their own signals to regulate their output of the hormone.
This self-regulation through autoinhibition, the researchers suggest, stands in contrast to the widely held view that mechanisms for controlling the release of dopamine—the “feel good” hormone—by any individual cell rely on feedback from nearby cells effectively recognizing how much is being released.
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✍️ Astro Biotechnology ()
🖼️
📰 Source: Gen Eng News
Biology in form of Art 🦠🧬🎨
White blood cell phagocyte, retinal ganglion, fibroblasts, red blood cells, intestinal villi of the lining of the intestine, transferrin receptors, embryo, brain, neuron, neuropeptide, windpipe, network of neurons in cultivation.
This work invites us to delve into the mystery of life, to admire, observe and question the basic workings of biology.
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✍️ Anna Rierola (.rierola)
🖼️ .rierola
📰 Source: IRB Barcelona
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