Category Biology/Biotechnology

Real AI will need Biology: Computers powered by Human Brain Cells

Real AI will need biology: computers powered by human brain cells
Credit: Frontiers in Science (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fsci.2023.1017235. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/science/articles/10.3389/fsci.2023.1017235

The time has come to create a new kind of computer, say researchers from John Hopkins University together with Dr. Brett Kagan, chief scientist at Cortical Labs in Melbourne, who recently led development of the DishBrain project, in which human cells in a petri dish learnt to play Pong.

In an article published today (March 1) in Frontiers in Science, the team outlines how biological computers could surpass today’s electronic computers for certain applications while using a small fraction of the electricity required by today’s computers and server farms.

They’re starting by making small clusters of 50,000 brain cells grown from stem c...

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New Study Unveils Epigenetic ‘Traffic Lights’ Controlling Stop and Go for Gene Activity

Extended Data Fig. 11
H3K4me3 facilitates the recruitment of factors regulating the release of paused RNAPII at the +1 nucleosome. The H3K4me3 at promoter regions is highly dynamic, and it is maintained by an equilibrium between SET1/COMPASS complexes and KDM5 demethylases at highly transcribed genes. The rapid turnover of H3K4me3 ensures that the pausing step is a highly regulated process by Integrator Complex Subunit 11 (INTS11), where an increase in H3K4me3 leads to a decrease in RNAPII pausing and acute depletion leads to an increase RNAPII pausing.

A major new study in the journal Nature reveals a ‘traffic light’ mechanism controlling genetic activity within cells – a system which could potentially be targeted by cancer drugs already in development...

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New Hydrogel Stem Cell Treatment Repairs Injured Brain Tissue in Mice

Mouse brain tissue
Mouse brain tissue 28 days after injection of hydrogel with myoglobin shows a higher volume of healthy grafted brain tissue, compared to injections of the hydrogel without myoglobin. Image: Supplied.

A new ‘hybrid’ hydrogel, which allows clinicians to safely deliver stem cells to the site of a brain injury in mice, has been developed by researchers from the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University.

A hydrogel is a water-based gel that can be used to deliver substances into the body and can be used to promote the effective growth of new cells.

Published in Nature Communications, the proof-of-concept breakthrough solves a major challenge faced by stem cell researchers since the 1980s – keeping stem cells alive for long enough to allow them to evolve into the c...

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Digital Twin Opens Way to Effective Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases

A vision of how digital twins can be used to tailor drugs: (A) Patients with different immune diseases. (B) Computers construct (C) digital twins of each patient’s disease mechanisms. These interact in molecular programmes, controlled by (D) switch proteins, which are measured in blood or tissue to (E) find the dominant protein(s) at which to target therapy. Illustration: The research group.

Inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis have complex disease mechanisms that can differ from patient to patient with the same diagnosis. This means that currently available drugs have little effect on many patients. Using so-called digital twins, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now obtained a deeper understanding of the “off and on” proteins that control these diseases...

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