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    Category Biology/Biotechnology

    Powerful New Tool to Advance Genomics, Disease Research

    November 29, 2022, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Powerful new tool to advance genomics, disease research
    Image: Intrinsic cleavage biases affect single-cell ATAC-seq data analysis. Visualization of intrinsic cleavage bias effect in different cell clusters derived from scATAC-seq data for different biological samples and different experimental platforms: human hematopoietic cells (a–c), mixed human cell lines (d–f), mouse primitive gut tube (g–i), and 10× Single-Cell Multiome data for mouse embryonic brain (j–l), human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) (m–o), and human lymph node (p–r). a, d, g, j, m, p UMAP visualization where cells are colored by cell type/labels/clusters. b, e, h, k, n, q Same UMAP visualization but cells are colored by cell bias score (CBS). c, f, i, l, o, r CBS distributions of cells from different cell types/batches/clusters...
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    New CRISPR-based Tool Inserts Large DNA Sequences at Desired Sites in Cells

    November 26, 2022, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    The arm of lab scientist plucks a segment of a DNA strand.
    Caption:Building on the CRISPR gene-editing system, MIT researchers designed a new tool that can snip out faulty genes and replace them with new ones.
    Credits:Image: MIT News, with images from iStockphoto

    Building on the CRISPR gene-editing system, MIT researchers have designed a new tool that can snip out faulty genes and replace them with new ones, in a safer and more efficient way.

    Using this system, the researchers showed that they could deliver genes as long as 36,000 DNA base pairs to several types of human cells, as well as to liver cells in mice. The new technique, known as PASTE, could hold promise for treating diseases that are caused by defective genes with a large number of mutations, such as cystic fibrosis.

    “It’s a new genetic way of potentially targeting these reall...

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    Drug Triggers Immune Cells to Attack Prostate Cancer

    November 25, 2022, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    A drug compound stimulates immune cells to attack prostate tumors, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Shown is a human prostate cancer organoid, a small 3D structure that serves as a model of prostate tumors. When the organoid is grown with prostate cancer patients’ immune cells, which have been treated with the drug, the immune cells attack the cancer. Red shows dead cells. Blue shows DNA.

    A single drug compound simultaneously attacks hard-to-treat prostate cancer on several fronts, according to a new study in mice and human cells...

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    Dietary Change Starves Cancer Cells, Overcoming Treatment Resistance

    November 23, 2022, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Blue green cell microscopic amino
    Green staining shows mTORC1 is significantly increased due to disruption in GATOR1 in a mouse model of colon cancer. Credit: Sumeet Solanki, Ph.D.

    Laboratory research finds a low-protein diet can enhance standard treatment for colon cancer. A dietary change could be a key to enhancing colon cancer treatment, a new study from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center finds.

    Cancer cells need nutrients to survive and grow. One of the most important nutrient sensing molecules in a cell is called mTORC1. Often called a master regulator of cell growth, it allows cells to sense different nutrients and thereby grow and proliferate. When nutrients are limited, cells dial down nutrient sensing cascade and turn off mTORC1.

    While mTORC1 is known to be hyperactive in colon cancer, the k...

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