Lifeboat Foundation

If it walks like a particle, and talks like a particle… it may still not be a particle. A topological soliton is a special type of wave or dislocation that behaves like a particle: it can move around but cannot spread out and disappear like you would expect from, say, a ripple on the surface of a pond. In a new study published in Nature, researchers from the University of Amsterdam demonstrate the atypical behavior of topological solitons in a robotic metamaterial, something which in the future may be used to control how robots move, sense their surroundings, and communicate.

Topological solitons can be found in many places and at many different length scales. For example, they take the form of kinks in coiled telephone cords and large molecules such as proteins. At a very different scale, a black hole can be understood as a topological soliton in the fabric of spacetime. Solitons play an important role in biological systems, being relevant for protein folding and morphogenesis – the development of cells or organs.

Continue reading “Breaking Physics: How Solitons Bend Time, Space, and Rules” »

In a recent study published in eBioMedicine, researchers evaluated proteomic signatures in blood plasma and cervicovaginal fluid for endometrial cancer detection.

Study: Detection of endometrial cancer in cervico-vaginal fluid and blood plasma: leveraging proteomics and machine learning for biomarker discovery. Image Credit: mi_viri/Shutterstock.com.

A brain tumor is the growth of abnormal cells in the brain or the area near it including nerves, pituitary gland, pineal gland, and membranes that cover the surface of the brain. Sometimes it can happen in the brain tissue as well. Brain tumours can be cancerous (malignant) or it can be non-cancerous (benign). However, both of them can be potentially life-threatening.

On the other hand, movement disorders refer to a cluster of neurological conditions that can either cause increased movements or decreased movements. For the unversed, brain tumours that are specifically affecting the brainstem, can sometimes cause various movement disorders.

Ubiquitous Potential

While many gene-editing therapies are focused on fatal genetic diseases, epigenetic editing’s safety profile may enable the treatment of more common diseases. The fact that no underlying changes are made to the DNA sequence “offers some additional safety assurances for this approach compared to some others where the risk/benefit [ratio] needs to be maybe a little different before you would employ those technologies,” Kane told BioSpace.

Additionally, because most common diseases are not driven by genetic mutations, epigenetic editing may be a better fit. “Most of those diseases are driven from expression levels being at an unhealthy level,” Kane said. “That is something that a tool like epi[genetic] editing is uniquely well-suited to address.”

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Research identifies vitamin D receptors (VDR) in breast cancer tumors as a promising prognostic marker, linking VDR presence to tumor characteristics, survival outcomes, and potentially informing treatment strategies.

Study uncovers proteomic signatures in blood plasma and cervicovaginal fluid that could lead to non-invasive detection methods for endometrial cancer, demonstrating significant potential for early diagnosis and improved patient outcomes.

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The project has secured £1.7 million.

The Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI) reported new findings from the (GEMCAD)-1402 trial, which investigated the addition of aflibercept in the treatment of locally advanced rectal adenocarcinoma.

During cell division, a ring forms around the cell equator, which contracts to divide the cell into two daughter cells. Together with researchers from Heidelberg, Dresden, Tübingen and Harvard, Professor Jan Kierfeld and Lukas Weise from the Department of Physics at TU Dortmund University have succeeded for the first time in synthesizing such a contractile ring with the help of DNA nanotechnology and to uncover its contraction mechanism.

The results have been published in the journal Nature Communications (“Triggered contraction of self-assembled micron-scale DNA nanotube rings”).

In synthetic biology, researchers try to recreate crucial mechanisms of life in vitro, such as cell division. The aim is to be able to synthesize minimal cells. The research team led by Professor Kerstin Göpfrich from Heidelberg University has now synthetically reproduced contractile rings for cell division using polymer rings composed of DNA nanotubes.