Lifeboat Foundation

EPFL scientists have crafted a biological system that mimics an electronic bandpass filter, a novel sensor that could revolutionize self-regulated biological mechanisms in synthetic biology.

Synthetic biology holds the promise of enhancing and modifying biological systems into innumerable new technologies for the benefit of society. This engineering approach to biology has already reaped benefits in the fields of drug delivery, agriculture, and energy production.

In a paper published in Nature Chemical Biology, EPFL researchers at the Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering (LPDI) at the School of Engineering have taken an important step in designing more performative biological systems.

One of the most interesting releases in the recent OpenAI’s DevDay is the GPTs. Essentially, GPTs are custom versions of ChatGPT that anyone can create for specific purposes. The process of configuring a workable GPT involves no coding but purely through chatting. As a result, since the release, a diverse of GPTs have been created by the community to help users be more productive and create more fun in life.

As a practitioner in the domain of physics-informed neural networks (PINN), I use ChatGPT (GPT-4) a lot to help me understand complex technical concepts, debug issues encountered when implementing the model, and suggest novel research ideas or engineering solutions. Despite being quite useful, I often find ChatGPT struggles to give me tailored answers beyond its general knowledge of PINN. Although I can tweak my prompts to incorporate more contextual information, it is a rather time-consuming practice, and can quickly deplete my patience sometimes.

Now with the possibility of easily customizing ChatGPT, a thought occurred to me: why not develop a customized GPT that acts as a PINN expert 🦸‍♀️, draws knowledge from my curated sources, and strives to answer my queries about PINN in a tailored way?

Melting a bacteriophage’s coat of proteins turns it into a tiny power plant, which could fire up the discovery of new bioengineered devices.

There were mixed reactions across gene editing space on Thursday after CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX), in a world’s first, won U.K. approval for their CRISPR-based drug exa-cel for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.

CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) has added ~5%, and MaxCyte (NASDAQ: MXCT), which has a licensing deal with the Swiss biotech, has gained ~4%. Vertex Pharma (VRTX) is trading lower for the third straight session.

Other CRSPR-based drug developers Graphite Bio (GRPH) and Precision BioSciences (DTIL) are also among the gainers, while notable gene editing biotechs Editas Medicine (EDIT), Beam Therapeutics (BEAM), Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA), and Verve Therapeutics (VRTX) are in the red.

‘Neural networks today are about as similar to a brain as an airplane is to a bird.’ — Kwabena Boahen, PhD, professor of bioengineering and of electrical engineering One problem, as Boahen sees it, is that AI relies on a “synaptocentric” mode of computing, in that half of the nodes — lines of binary…

Do nerve cells hold the key to an epic advance in computing?

By John Sanford

Continue reading “Mind in the machine” »

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s medicines regulator has authorized the world’s first gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease, in a move that could offer relief to thousands of people with the crippling disease in the U.K. In a statement Thursday, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it approved Casgevy, the first medicine licensed using the gene editing tool CRISPR, which won its makers a Nobel prize in 2020. The agency approved…

The one-time treatment helped relieve symptoms of disease and could free patients from the need for bone marrow transplants or regular blood transfusions, Beach said, adding that the drug hopefully offers a permanent fix for the condition.

The MHRA said it identified no significant safety concerns during the trials and will continue to closely monitor Casgevy’s safety after approval.

Vertex CEO and President Reshma Kewalramanit celebrated Casgevy’s approval as “a historic day in science and medicine” and Samarth Kulkarni, CEO and Chairman of Crispr Therapeutics, said it will hopefully mark “the first of many applications of this Nobel Prize winning technology to benefit eligible patients with serious diseases.” The two companies are hoping for similarly positive decisions from the MHRA’s counterparts in the Europe Union and the U.S., which are in the process of evaluating Casgevy, also known as exa-cel. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to make a decision in early December and has a deadline of December 8. The agency appears poised to follow the MHRA and approve the treatment, with its advisors confident of the drug’s efficacy and benefit but wary of theoretical unintended consequences of genetic modifications.

Summary: Researchers made a breakthrough in memory research by genetically modifying the LIMK1 protein, crucial for memory, to be controlled by the drug rapamycin.

This study demonstrates the ability to enhance memory functions by manipulating synaptic plasticity in the brain.

The engineered protein showed significant memory improvement in animal models with age-related cognitive decline, offering potential for innovative treatments for neuropsychiatric diseases like dementia. This ‘chemogenetic’ approach, blending genetics and chemistry, opens new avenues in neurological research and therapy.

At Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), quantum biology, artificial intelligence, and bioengineering have collided to redefine the landscape of CRISPR Cas9 genome editing tools. This multidisciplinary approach, detailed in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, promises to elevate the precision and efficiency of genetic modifications in organisms, particularly microbes, paving the way for enhanced production of renewable fuels and chemicals.

CRISPR is adept at modifying genetic code to enhance an organism’s performance or correct mutations. CRISPR Cas9 requires a guide RNA (gRNA) to direct the enzyme to its target site to perform these modifications. However, existing computational models for predicting effective guide RNAs in CRISPR tools have shown limited efficiency when applied to microbes. ORNL’s Synthetic Biology group, led by Carrie Eckert, observed these disparities and set out to bridge the gap.

“A lot of the CRISPR tools have been developed for mammalian cells, fruit flies, or other model species. Few have been geared towards microbes where the chromosomal structures and sizes are very different,” explained Eckert.