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Category: bioengineering – Page 45

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Technological enhancements and implants are becoming more popular amongst a group of transhumanists who call themselves “grinders”. Are we coming closer to an age of cyborgs? Is genetic screening and editing ethical? Has biohacking lost all meaning? What are nootropics? That’s what we’ll talk about today.

Continue reading “Should we take evolution into our own hands and become transhuman?” | >

The 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to Dr. Jennifer Doudna and Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier for their work on the gene editing technique known as CRISPR-Cas9. This gives us the ability to change the DNA of any living thing, from plants and animals to humans.

The applications are enormous, from improving farming to curing diseases. A decade or so from now, CRISPR will no doubt be taught in High Schools, and be a basic building block of medicine and agriculture. It is going to change everything.

There are ethical and moral concerns, of course, and we will need regulations to ensure this powerful technology is not abused. But we should focus on the remarkable opportunities CRISPR has opened up for us.

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Legitimately awesome paper wherein Arulkumaran et al. assemble DNA nanotubes and use them to build artificial ‘cytoskeletons’ inside of giant unilamellar vesicles. They go on to make a variety of fun variations on this theme and eventually build artificial ‘tissues’ made up of these synthetic cell-like vesicles and an ‘extracellular matrix’ that is also made of DNA nanotubes. I find this paper impressive due to how performs precise engineering at the nanoscale and builds up layers of complexity until macroscale specimens are created in a fashion reminiscent of biological systems, yet unique in its own way. #biotechnology #nanotechnology #cellbiology #bioengineering

Building synthetic protocells and prototissues hinges on the formation of biomimetic skeletal frameworks. Here, the authors harness simplicity to create complexity by assembling DNA subunits into structural frameworks which support membrane-based protocells and prototissues.

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A University of Virginia-led study about a class of materials called associative polymers appears to challenge a long-held understanding of how the materials, which have unique self-healing and flow properties, function at the molecular level.

Liheng Cai, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering and chemical engineering at UVA, who led the study, said the new discovery has important implications for the countless ways these materials are used every day, from engineering recyclable plastics to human tissue engineering to controlling the consistency of paint so it doesn’t drip.

The discovery, which has been published in the journal Physical Review Letters, was enabled by new associative polymers developed in Cai’s lab at the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science by his postdoctoral researcher Shifeng Nian and Ph.D. student Myoeum Kim. The breakthrough evolved from a theory Cai had co-developed before arriving at UVA in 2018.

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A team of medical scientists at The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., working with a colleague from Purdue University, has developed a way to engineer the bacteriophage T4 to serve as a vector for molecular repair. The study is reported in the journal Nature Communications.

Prior research has shown that many human ailments arise due to : , Down syndrome, and hemophilia are just a few. Logic suggests that correcting such genetic mutations could cure these diseases. So researchers have been working toward developing gene editing tools that will allow for safe editing of genes.

One of the most promising is the CRISPR gene editing system. In this new effort, the research team took a more general approach to solving the problem by working to develop a vector that could be used to carry different kinds of tools to targeted cells and then enter them to allow for healing work to commence.

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Crispre cas 9.

A major issue in neuroscience is the poor translatability of research results from preclinical studies in animals to clinical outcomes. Comparative neuroscience can overcome this barrier by studying multiple species to differentiate between species-specific and general mechanisms of neural circuit functioning. Targeted manipulation of neural circuits often depends on genetic dissection, and use of this technique has been restricted to only a few model species, limiting its application in comparative research. However, ongoing advances in genomics make genetic dissection attainable in a growing number of species. To demonstrate the potential of comparative gene editing approaches, we developed a viral-mediated CRISPR/Cas9 strategy that is predicted to target the oxytocin receptor (Oxtr) gene in 80 rodent species. This strategy specifically reduced OXTR levels in all evaluated species (n = 6) without causing gross neuronal toxicity. Thus, we show that CRISPR/Cas9-based tools can function in multiple species simultaneously. Thereby, we hope to encourage comparative gene editing and improve the translatability of neuroscientific research.

The development of comparative gene editing strategies improves the translatability of animal research.

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https://youtu.be/289mVc7PDsU

This video explores Brain Computer Interfaces in 2050. Watch this next video called “Transhumanism: 20 Ways It Will Change The World:” https://youtu.be/qcsihbGnXgE.
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The first protein-based nano-computing agent that functions as a circuit has been created by Penn State researchers. The milestone puts them one step closer to developing next-generation cell-based therapies to treat diseases like diabetes and cancer.

Traditional synthetic biology approaches for cell-based therapies, such as ones that destroy cancer cells or encourage tissue regeneration after injury, rely on the expression or suppression of proteins that produce a desired action within a cell. This approach can take time (for proteins to be expressed and degrade) and cost cellular energy in the process. A team of Penn State College of Medicine and Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences researchers are taking a different approach.

“We’re engineering proteins that directly produce a desired action,” said Nikolay Dokholyan, G. Thomas Passananti Professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Pharmacology. “Our protein-based devices or nano-computing agents respond directly to stimuli (inputs) and then produce a desired action (outputs).”

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