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    Category Biology/Biotechnology

    Team creates Nano-Magnets that could Restore Damaged Nerve Cells

    November 30, 2022, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    The nano-magnets that will restore damaged nerve cells
    Modular magnetic devices for applying local magnetic fields. Applying magnetic fields using A) 4 mm diameter pinhole parallelly-aligned and beehive-like magnetic devices. B) 1.5 cm diameter ring magnet. i) Illustrations of magnetic devices. In blue: pores are arranged in a beehive-like pattern, in red: pores are arranged in parallel lines. ii) Life-size images of magnetic rod/ring. iii) Simulations of magnetic flux density in COMSOL software. The images present a top view of magnetic flux density generated by a magnetic rod/ring in tesla (T). Intensity is color-coded (low intensity in dark blue, high intensity in red). iv) COMSOL simulations of magnetic field, magnetic flux density, and magnetic force 1 mm above the magnetic rod/ring. The magnetic field is indicated as solid lines...
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    Chemotherapy could Increase Disease Susceptibility in Future Generations

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

    An illustration of a cancer cell surrounded by healthy cells.
    An illustration of a cancer cell among healthy cells. Image by CIPhotos on iStock.

    A common chemotherapy drug could carry a toxic inheritance for children and grandchildren of adolescent cancer survivors, Washington State University-led research indicates. The study, published online in iScience, found that male rats who received the drug ifosfamide during adolescence had offspring and grand-offspring with increased incidence of disease. While other research has shown that cancer treatments can increase patients’ chance of developing disease later in life, this is one of the first-known studies showing that susceptibility can be passed down to a third generation of unexposed offspring.

    “The findings suggest that if a patient receives chemotherapy, and then later has children, that t...

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    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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