Lifeboat Foundation

The great George Church takes us through the revolutionary journey of DNA sequencing from his early groundbreaking work to the latest advancements. He discusses the evolution of sequencing methods, including molecular multiplexing, and their implications for understanding and combating aging.

We talk about the rise of biotech startups, potential future directions in genome sequencing, the role of precise gene therapies, the ongoing integration of nanotechnology and biology, the potential of biological engineering in accelerating evolution, transhumanism, the Human Genome Project, and the importance of intellectual property in biotechnology.

Continue reading “Synthetic Biology: George Church on Genome Sequencing and De-Extinction” »

The technology’s promise can sound like science fiction—it might help us adapt to a radically different climate, or grow organs for people in need—but experts are also concerned about its potential side effects.

Every cell is beholden to a phenomenon called cell fate, a sort of biological preset determined by genetic coding. Burgeoning cells take their developmental cues from a set of core genetic instructions that shape their structure and function and how they interact with other cells in the body.

To you or me, it’s biological law. But to a group of researchers at Stanford Medicine, it’s more of a suggestion. Unconstrained by the rules of evolution, these scientists are instead governed by a question: What if?

What if you could eat a vaccine? Or create a bacterium that could also detect and attack cancer? What if furniture could grow from a seed?

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An achievement that was deemed impossible has successfully become accomplished. For the first time in history, DNA can be edited. One of the goals is to be able to get rid of genetic diseases. This whole concept in genomic science has opened up a whole new revolutionary way of dealing with such critical health issues. There is a possibility that illnesses that were once incurable have a chance to be curable.

MedlinePlus provides a definition and states that a collection of tools known as genome editing, or gene editing, allows researchers to alter an organism’s DNA. These technologies enable the addition, deletion, or modification of genetic material at specific genomic regions. A person’s DNA can be altered through gene editing to fix mistakes that lead to illnesses.

CRISPR-Cas9, short for CRISPR-associated protein 9 and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, is a well-known example as one of the approaches used and developed by scientists to edit DNA. The scientific community is very excited about the CRISPR-Cas9 system since it is more accurate, efficient, quicker, and less expensive than existing genome editing techniques.

CRISPR-Cas is used broadly in research and medicine to edit, insert, delete or regulate genes in organisms. TnpB is an ancestor of this well-known “gene scissors” but is much smaller and thus easier to transport into cells.

Using protein engineering and AI algorithms, University of Zurich researchers have now enhanced TnpB capabilities to make DNA editing more efficient and versatile, paving the way for treating a genetic defect for high cholesterol in the future. The work has been published in Nature Methods.

CRISPR-Cas systems, which consist of protein and RNA components, were originally developed as a natural defense mechanism of bacteria to fend off intruding viruses. Over the last decade, re-engineering these so-called “gene scissors” has revolutionized genetic engineering in science and medicine.

Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists who arranged for 48 human bioengineered heart tissue samples to spend 30 days at the International Space Station report evidence that the low gravity conditions in space weakened the tissues and disrupted their normal rhythmic beats when compared to Earth-bound samples from the same source.

The scientists said the heart tissues “really don’t fare well in space,” and over time, the tissues aboard the space station beat about half as strongly as tissues from the same source kept on Earth.

The findings, they say, expand scientists’ knowledge of low gravity’s potential effects on astronauts’ survival and health during long space missions, and they may serve as models for studying heart muscle aging and therapeutics on Earth.

The interlocking bricks, which can be repurposed many times over, can withstand similar pressures as their concrete counterparts. Engineers developed a new kind of reconfigurable masonry made from 3D-printed, recycled glass. The bricks could be reused many times over in building facades and internal walls.

What if construction materials could be put together and taken apart as easily as LEGO bricks? Such reconfigurable masonry would be disassembled at the end of a building’s lifetime and reassembled into a new structure, in a sustainable cycle that could supply generations of buildings using the same physical building blocks.

That’s the idea behind circular construction, which aims to reuse and repurpose a building’s materials whenever possible, to minimize the manufacturing of new materials and reduce the construction industry’s “embodied carbon,” which refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with every process throughout a building’s construction, from manufacturing to demolition.

Researchers have long observed that a common family of environmental bacteria, Comamonadacae, grow on plastics littered throughout urban rivers and wastewater systems.

Finding could lead to bioengineering solutions to clean up plastic waste.

A new study finds that a common bacterium can break down plastic for food, opening new possibilities for bacteria-based engineering solutions to help clean up plastic waste. Illustration credit Ludmilla Aristilde/Northwestern University.

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