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Humans have a distinctive skeleton, and are the only bipedal great apes (the great ape species are bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and humans). While the evolution of the human skeleton enabled us to walk upright, it also led to the rise of musculoskeletal disease. It’s thought that cognitive development began to accelerate in humans once we started to move around, adapt to new environments, and make use of tools. Researchers have now used advanced computational tools and a trove of human genetic data in the UK Biobank to outline the genetic changes that occurred as primates started to walk upright for the first time.

These findings, which were reported in Science, have suggested that natural selection had a strong influence on the genetic changes that altered our anatomy, and gave early humans an evolutionary leg up.

Crohn’s disease affects four million people worldwide. The condition causes debilitating symptoms such as chronic fatigue, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, weight loss and malnutrition.

Once symptoms develop, Crohn’s is a lifelong condition – and while there are ways to manage symptoms during flare-ups, there’s currently no cure.

The exact causes of Crohn’s disease are unknown and are probably due to a number of complex and overlapping factors – such as genetics, environmental cues (such as smoking) and an immune system that’s overactive in the gut.

DNA can do more than pass genetic code from one generation to the next. For nearly 20 years, scientists have known of the molecule’s ability to stabilize nanometer-sized clusters of silver atoms. Some of these structures glow visibly in red and green, making them useful in a variety of chemical and biosensing applications.

Stacy Copp, UCI assistant professor of materials science and engineering, wanted to see if the capabilities of these tiny fluorescent markers could be stretched even further—into the near-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum—to give bioscience researchers the power to see through living cells and even centimeters of biological tissue, opening doors to enhanced methods of disease detection and treatment.

“There is untapped potential to extend fluorescence by DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters into the near-infrared region,” she says. “The reason that’s so interesting is because our biological tissues and fluids are much more transparent to near-infrared light than to visible light.”

😗😁 This genetic trick could stop some brain disorders in humans with crispr.

The reshuffling of neurons during fruit fly metamorphosis suggests that larval memories don’t persist in adults.

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He Jiankui, the Chinese scientist who faced international condemnation in 2018 for creating the first gene-edited children, has presented a new research proposal involving modifying human embryos to address the challenges of the ageing population. He, who was sentenced to three years in prison in 2019 for “illegal medical practices,” resurfaced last year and announced the opening of a research lab in Beijing.

One of the oldest known molecules, the ribosome, creates proteins based on a copy of the genetic code found in the genome, known as mRNA. Scientists have believed that the ribosome performed the same type of work with all mRNA, like a standardized assembly line that it did not regulate on its own. However, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have discovered this is not the case.

Their findings are published in the journal Developmental Cell in an article entitled “Ribosomal RNA 2′-O-methylation dynamics impact cell fate decisions.”

“It has long been known that there are different types of ribosomes. But it has been assumed that no matter what mRNA you give the ribosome, it will produce a protein. But our results suggest that different types of ribosomes produce specific proteins,” says Anders H. Lund, professor at the Biotech Research and Innovation Center at the University of Copenhagen.

Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors are a cornerstone of genetic medicine. These hollow virus particles are used to deliver commercial gene therapies like Glybera and Luxturna, as well as many other candidates still in development.

Despite this, the biopharmaceutical industry has yet to find the most effective way of making rAAV vectors at scale. McKinsey analysts recently described vector production as one of the major challenges faced by gene therapy developers. And the situation is only going to get worse as the gene therapy market evolves and begins developing products for larger patient populations.

“With a shift beyond ultra-rare indications, viral-vector manufacturing requires rapid expansion to be able to address various diseases in the commercial space,” the analysts wrote, adding, “The broader application of viral vector-based gene therapies (for example, to more common diseases) requires higher yields and lower cost of goods (COGs).”

Scientists adding a human intelligence gene into monkeys — it’s the kind of thing you’d see in a movie like Rise of the Planet of the Apes. But Chinese researchers have done just that, improving the short-term memories of the monkeys in a study published in March 2019 in the Chinese journal National Science Review. While some experts downplayed the effects as minor, concerns linger over where the research may lead.

The goal of the work, led by geneticist Bing Su of Kunming Institute of Zoology, was to investigate how a gene linked to brain size, MCPH1, might contribute to the evolution of the organ in humans. All primates have some variation of this gene. However, compared with other primates, our brains are larger, more advanced and slower to develop; the researchers wondered whether differences that evolved in the human version of MCPH1 might explain our more complex brains.

Article from 2019

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