Lifeboat Foundation

A study by chemists at the University of Chicago has uncovered a new key step in the process that HIV uses to replicate itself.

The study, published Jan. 6 in Science Advances, used computer modeling to focus on how HIV forms a capsule that carries its genetic material—in particular, the role of a particular ion known as IP6. Scientists had previously suspected IP6 has an important function but didn’t know exactly how it worked.

Continue reading “Tiny ion is crucial for HIV replication, say chemists” »

The academic community is growing increasingly concerned about students using ChatGPT for less than honest purposes as it has been found to be capable of not only writing essays for high school students, but passing some exams, such as parts of those used to license doctors and grant MBAs.

In two new papers posted on preprint servers, one team and another researcher independently tested the ability of ChatGPT to take and pass exams. In the first a team with members from AnsibleHealth, Inc., Brown University and OpenAI, Inc. describe testing they did to see how well ChatGPT could do on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and posted their results on the medRXiv preprint server.

In the second, Christian Terwiesch, the Andrew M. Heller Professor at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has posted a paper on Wharton’s preprint site, describing how he tested the chatbot’s ability to perform on the final exam of a typical Operations Management MBA core course and what he found.

In aging mouse livers, 40% of elongating RNA polymerases are stalled, biasing transcriptional output dependent on gene length. This transcriptional stress appears to be caused by endogenous DNA damage.

It goes without saying that if someone has a blood clot in their brain, that clot should be cleared as soon as possible. An experimental new transducer could help, as it uses swirling waves of ultrasound to break up blood clots much faster than existing methods.

Developed by scientists at North Carolina State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, the device is designed specifically for use on what are known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) clots. These form in veins that ordinarily allow blood to drain from the brain. When those veins are blocked, blood pressure in the brain increases, to the point that a potentially lethal or disabling hemorrhage may occur.

Most existing CVST treatments involve using drugs to dissolve the clot. According to the team behind the new study, however, it takes an average of about 29 hours – and never less than 15 hours – for such medications to work. By contrast, the new transducer breaks up the clots in less than 30 minutes.

On Jan. 3, she was transported to a pediatric hospital in critical condition after suffering septic shock and being diagnosed with pneumonia. She tested positive for the H5N1 strain on Jan. 7 and remained hospitalized, under sedation and on a ventilator as of Jan. 17, the international health organization stated.

The previously healthy girl becomes the seventh individual the virus has sickened since 2020, according to the World Health Organization. While H5N1 is considered highly infectious, that’s only among birds. It’s typically difficult for the virus to make the leap to humans, and transmission from human to human is “unusual,” the international health organization says.

When the virus does make the leap, however, it’s highly fatal, with a mortality rate of greater than 50% among humans, according to the CDC.

New York, NY (December 12, 2022) A new therapy that makes the immune system kill bone marrow cancer cells was successful in as many as 73 percent of patients in two clinical trials, according to researchers from The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The therapy, known as a bispecific antibody, binds to both T cells and multiple myeloma cells and directs the T cells—white blood cells that can be enlisted to fight off diseases—to kill multiple myeloma cells. The researchers described this strategy as “bringing your army right to the enemy.”

The success of the off-the-shelf immunotherapy, called talquetamab, was even seen in patients whose cancer was resistant to all approved multiple myeloma therapies. It uses a different target than other approved therapies: a receptor expressed on the surface of cancer cells known as GPRC5D.

Source: Penn State

Understanding the neural interface within the brain is critical to understanding aging, learning, disease progression and more. Existing methods for studying neurons in animal brains to better understand human brains, however, all carry limitations, from being too invasive to not detecting enough information.

A newly developed, pop-up electrode device could gather more in-depth information about individual neurons and their interactions with each other while limiting the potential for brain tissue damage.

A new study identifies cells that are the most vulnerable within a brain structure involved in mood and movement.

Nine military officers who had worked decades ago at a nuclear missile base in Montana have been diagnosed with blood cancer and there are “indications” the disease may be linked to their service, according to military briefing slides obtained by The Associated Press. One of the officers has died.

All of the officers, known as missileers, were assigned as many as 25 years ago to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to a vast field of 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos. The nine officers were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a January briefing by U.S. Space Force Lt. Col. Daniel Sebeck.

Missileers ride caged elevators deep underground into a small operations bunker encased in a thick wall of concrete and steel. They remain there sometimes for days, ready to turn the launch keys if ordered to by the president.