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A change in just one letter in the code that makes up a cancer-causing gene can significantly affect how aggressive a tumor is or how well a patient with cancer responds to a particular therapy. A new, very precise gene-editing tool created by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators will enable scientists to study the impact of these specific genetic changes in preclinical models rather than being limited to more broadly targeted tactics, such as deleting the entire gene.

The tool was described in a study published Aug. 10 in Nature Biotechnology. Dr. Lukas Dow, an associate professor of biochemistry in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, and his colleagues genetically engineered mice to carry an enzyme that allows the scientists to change a single base or “letter” in the mouse’s genetic code. The enzyme can be turned on or off by feeding the mice an antibiotic called doxycycline, reducing the prospect of unintended genetic changes occurring over time. The tool can also grow miniature versions of intestine, lung, and pancreas tissue called organoids from the mice, enabling even more molecular and biochemical studies of the impact of these precise genetic changes.

“We are excited about using this technology to try and understand the genetic changes that influence a patient’s response to cancer therapies,” said Dr. Dow, who is also a member of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.

An interdisciplinary team of mathematicians, engineers, physicists, and medical scientists have uncovered an unexpected link between pure mathematics and genetics, that reveals key insights into the structure of neutral mutations and the evolution of organisms.

Number theory, the study of the properties of positive integers, is perhaps the purest form of mathematics. At first sight, it may seem far too abstract to apply to the natural world. In fact, the influential American number theorist Leonard Dickson wrote ‘Thank God that number theory is unsullied by any application.’

And yet, again and again, number theory finds unexpected applications in science and engineering, from leaf angles that (almost) universally follow the Fibonacci sequence, to modern encryption techniques based on factoring prime numbers. Now, researchers have demonstrated an unexpected link between number theory and evolutionary genetics.

A team at Nottingham Trent University analyzed the full set of more than 11,000 gene transcripts inside muscle cells, finding that the ‘development pathways’—the different ways in which genes work together to regenerate muscle—become weakened in aged cells.

The study may help to shed some light on why muscle damage take longer to recover from as we age. The study is published in the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.

The researchers developed a new approach to examine muscle cells in vitro in the laboratory to enable them to observe the different molecular mechanisms that drive muscle aging.

Water is a crucial and irreplaceable part of daily human life. As the world’s population expands and global temperatures rise, the demand for water proportionally increases.

In the last twenty years, worldwide water reserves have been depleting, even though the total storage capacity has expanded due to the building of additional reservoirs.

Led by Dr. Huilin Gao, associate professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University, researchers used a new approach with satellite data to estimate the storage variations of 7,245 global reservoirs from 1999 to 2018.

A makeshift lab in Fresno, California was illegally storing over 1,000 bioengineered mice and disease samples. Ana Kasparian and Wosney Lambre discuss on The Young Turks. https://shoptyt.com/collections/justice-is-coming.

Watch TYT LIVE on weekdays 6–8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live.

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Rotifers are excellent research organisms for studying the biology of aging, DNA repair mechanisms, and other fundamental questions. Now, using an innovative application of CRISPrCas9, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, have devised a method for making precise, heritable changes to the rotifer genome, enabling the larger community of scientists to deploy the rotifer as a genetically tractable lab organism.

An interdisciplinary team of mathematicians, engineers, physicists, and medical scientists has discovered a surprising connection between pure mathematics and genetics. This connection sheds light on the structure of neutral mutations and the evolution of organisms.

Number theory, the study of the properties of positive integers, is perhaps the purest form of mathematics. At first sight, it may seem far too abstract to apply to the natural world. In fact, the influential American number theorist Leonard Dickson wrote “Thank God that number theory is unsullied by any application.”

And yet, again and again, number theory finds unexpected applications in science and engineering, from leaf angles that (almost) universally follow the Fibonacci sequence, to modern encryption techniques based on factoring prime numbers. Now, researchers have demonstrated an unexpected link between number theory and evolutionary genetics.

Microorganisms leverage the CRISPR-Cas system as a defense mechanism against viral intrusions. In the realm of genetic engineering, this microbial immune system is repurposed for the targeted modification of the genetic makeup.

Under the leadership of Professor Dr. Alexander Probst, microbiologist at the Research Center One Health Ruhr at the Research Alliance Ruhr a research team has now discovered another function of this specialised genomic sequence: archaea – microorganisms that are often very similar to bacteria in appearance – also use them to fight parasites.

The team has recently published their findings in Nature Microbiology.

Biofilms are highly resistant communities of bacteria that pose a major challenge in the treatment of infections. While studying biofilm formation in laboratory conditions has been extensively conducted, understanding their development in the complex environment of the human respiratory tract has remained elusive.

A team of researchers led by Alexandre Persat at EPFL have now cracked the problem by successfully developing organoids called AirGels. Organoids are miniature, self-organized 3D tissues grown from stem cells to mimic actual body tissues and organs in the human body. They represent a paradigm shift in the field, enabling scientists to replicate and study the intricate environments of organs in the laboratory.

Developed by Tamara Rossy and her colleagues, the AirGels are bioengineered models of human lung tissue that open up new possibilities in infection research. They revolutionize infection research by accurately emulating the physiological properties of the airway mucosa, including mucus secretion and ciliary beating. This technology allows scientists to study airway infections in a more realistic and comprehensive manner, bridging the gap between in vitro studies and clinical observations.