Lifeboat Foundation

For something so small, neurons can be quite complex—not only because there are billions of them in a brain, but because their function can be influenced by many factors, like their shape and genetic makeup.

A research team led by Daifeng Wang, a Waisman Center professor of biostatistics and medical informatics and computer sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is adapting machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to better understand how a variety of traits together affect the way neurons work and behave.

Called manifold learning, the approach may help researchers better understand and even predict brain disorders by looking at specific neuronal properties. The Wang lab recently published its findings in two studies.

Northwestern University synthetic biologists have developed a low-cost, easy-to-use, hand-held device that can let users know—within mere minutes—if their water is safe to drink.

The new device works by using powerful and programmable genetic networks, which mimic electronic circuits, to perform a range of logic functions.

Among the DNA-based circuits, for example, the researchers engineered cell-free molecules into an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a ubiquitous circuit type found in nearly all electronic devices. In the water-quality device, the ADC circuit processes an analog input (contaminants) and generates a digital output (a visual signal to inform the user).

Genetically modified are words that bother many in Western countries, but they provide for the necessities of life elsewhere.

Stephen Hawking made terrifying predictions of the future. Based on science, the late British physicists predicted several things that could happen on Earth, from the rise of powerful Artificial intelligence to fearful robots poised to destroy humankind. Hawking also spoke about how it was dangerous to search for aliens and how global warming could destroy Earth as we know it.

However, Stephen Hawking also spoke about how abrupt advances in genetic science could lead to creating a future generation of superhumans that could eventually destroy humanity as we know it.

In recently published papers, Prof. Hawking predicted that an elite class of physically altered, intellectually powerful humans could come into existence from rich people choosing to edit their existing DNA and manipulate future generations’ genetic markup.

Tae Seok Moon, associate professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has taken a big step forward in his quest to design a modular, genetically engineered kill switch that integrates into any genetically engineered microbe, causing it to self-destruct under certain defined conditions.

His research was published Feb. 3 in the journal Nature Communications.

𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐗𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬:

The Neuro-Network.

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐥𝐳𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞

Continue reading “Researchers introduce into human cells a genetic mutation that protects against Alzheimer’s disease” »

Not science, apparentlyLast month, a Ph.D. student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem breed a new strain of ‘supercharged’ lettuce that expanded its vitamin C and beta carotene content by 800 percent and 70 percent respectively.

Research Interests.

Genomic/metabolomic/proteomic approaches for identification of novel (regulatory and biosynthetic) aroma genes.

Continue reading “What is stopping gene-edited food from saving our planet?” »

New Israeli startup aims to get product to market within two years; technology could also be used to identify early markers of cancer.

An Israeli startup is developing a non-invasive early detection method using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify genetic disorders in human embryos.

Via a simple blood test taken from the pregnant mother during the first trimester, IdentifAI Genetics can read the embryo’s entire DNA and provide in-depth analysis to detect genetic disorders.

Multiple changes in brain cells during the first month of embryonic development may contribute to schizophrenia later in life, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

The researchers, whose study was published in Molecular Psychiatry, used stem cells collected from patients with schizophrenia and people without the disease to grow 3-dimensional “mini-brains” or organoids in the laboratory. By comparing the development of both sets of organoids, they discovered that a reduced expression of two genes in the cells stymies early development and causes a shortage of brain cells in organoids grown from patient stem cells.

“This discovery fills an important gap in scientists’ understanding of schizophrenia,” said senior author Dr. Dilek Colak, assistant professor of neuroscience at the Feil Family Brain and Mind Institute and the Center for Neurogenetics at Weill Cornell Medicine. Symptoms of schizophrenia typically develop in adulthood, but postmortem studies of the brains of people with the disease found enlarged cavities called ventricles and differences in the cortical layers that likely occurred early in life.