Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers identify molecular cues that make developing neurons remodel their connections.

At this very moment, the billions of neurons in your brain are using their trillions of connections to enable you to read and comprehend this sentence.

Now, by studying the neurons involved in the sense of smell, researchers from Kyushu University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences report a new mechanism behind the biomolecular bonsai that selectively strengthens these connections.

Advances with photoswitches could lead to a smartphone that’s soft and flexible and shaped like a hand so you can wear it as a glove, for example. Or a paper-thin computer screen that you can roll up like a window shade when you’re done using it. Or a TV as thin as wallpaper that you can paste on a wall and hardly know it’s there when you’re not watching it.

Photoswitches, which turn on and off in response to light, can be stitched together to replace the transistors used in electronic devices that control the flow of the electric current.

Commercial silicon transistors are brittle, nontransparent, and typically several microns thick, about the same thickness as a red blood cell. In contrast, photoswitches are one or two nanometers, about 1,000 times thinner. They can also be mounted on graphene, a transparent, flexible material.

A new fabrication process for helical metal nanoparticles provides a simpler, cheaper way to rapidly produce a material essential for biomedical and optical devices, according to a study by University of Michigan researchers.

Yale researchers have developed a cancer vaccine for dogs that nearly doubles their 12-month survival rate — and it might be a powerful treatment for humans with cancer, too.

Sick as a dog: In 2011, the FDA approved the first ever cancer immunotherapy — a treatment that supercharges the immune system to fight cancer — and today, oncologists have dozens of powerful immunotherapies in their arsenal, with more coming every year.

Continue reading “Cancer vaccine for dogs appears to nearly double survival rate” »

Genomes are the blueprints of living creatures; chromosomes and genes within all our cells encode information about life. Genome editing technology that can change these chromosomes and genes has developed rapidly. From drug development and gene therapy, improvements to crops and livestock, to creating useful microorganisms to replace petroleum, this technology has started to have a significant impact on our societies.

Professor NISHIDA Keiji (Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation) has developed a new genome editing technology and established a business venture based on his research findings. He is on the front lines of genome editing in both business and research.

Featuring research from the Doudna laboratory, the University of Harvard and the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, this round-up piece discusses the latest research advancements in CRISPR technology.

“Trillions of cells in our body divide every single day, and this requires accurate replication of our genomes. Our work describes a new mechanism that regulates protein stability in replicating DNA. We now know a bit more about an important step in this complex biological process.”

An enduring mystery of ‘lagging strand’ DNA replication

The DNA replication process is carried out by multiple protein complexes with highly specialized functions, including the unwinding of DNA and the copying of the two unwound DNA strands. The process is akin to a factory assembly line where balls made up of massive, crumpled strings of data are unraveled, allowing specific pieces to be trimmed and copied. Biologists know a good deal about how this process starts and proceeds, but know less about how it is stopped or paused.

Every day, our cells are hard at work multiplying. Cell division is a precise process, but sometimes this process is impaired and diseases like cancer occur. Mitosis is one of the most important phases in the cell cycle. During this phase, a cell’s DNA is split into two equal sets of chromosomes and it divides into two genetically identical daughter cells.

Scientists have long pondered the beginnings of life on Earth. One theory is that RNA, which is ubiquitous across all domains of life, played a central role in early life. Similar to DNA, RNA possesses the ability to store genetic information. However, to initiate life’s processes, early RNA must have also possessed the capability to self-replicate and catalyze biochemical reactions independently, without the assistance of specialized enzymes.