Category Health/Medical

Highlights •Bacteriophage anti-CRISPR proteins inactivate Listeria monocytogenes CRISPR-Cas9 •Half of L. monocytogenes isolates possess inhibited CRISPR-Cas9 systems •AcrIIA2 and AcrIIA4 prevent target binding by dCas9 in bacteria •AcrIIA2 and AcrIIA4 inhibit Cas9-mediated gene editing in human cells

UCSF researchers have discovered a way to switch off the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system using newly identified anti-CRISPR proteins that are produced by bacterial viruses. The technique has the potential to improve the safety and accuracy of CRISPR applications both in the clinic and for basic research...

Professor Ken Stark taking a sample of blood in Waterloo’s Laboratory of Nutritional and Nutraceutical Research to determine the levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Credit: Light Imaging

Taking certain omega-3 fatty acid supplements during pregnancy can reduce the risk of childhood asthma by almost one third, according to a new study from the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC) and the University of Waterloo. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that women who were prescribed 2.4 grams of long-chain omega-3 supplements during the third trimester of pregnancy reduced their children’s risk of asthma by 31%...

Therapeutic microparticles functionalized with biomimetic cardiac stem cell membranes and secretome

Researchers have developed a synthetic version of a cardiac stem cell which offer therapeutic benefits comparable to those from natural stem cells and could reduce some of risks associated with stem cell therapies. These cells also have better preservation stability and the technology is generalizable to other types of stem cells.

Stem cell therapies work by promoting endogenous repair; that is, they aid damaged tissue in repairing itself by secreting “paracrine factors,” including proteins and genetic materials. While stem cell therapies can be effective, they are also associated with some risks of both tumor growth and immune rejection...

Crash Test Cameras

2017 edition of NASA Spinoffs. NASA innovations we use in our daily lives. Here are some of our favorite things we bet you didn’t know use space technology.
1.Crash Test Cameras: Parachutes are a key part of the landing system for many of our spacecraft, but before we send them into orbit — or beyond — we have to make sure that they’re going to work as designed. One important component of testing is a video that captures every millisecond as the chute opens, to see if it’s working and if not, what went wrong. Integrated Design Tools built a camera for us that could do just that: rugged and compact, it can film up to 1,000 frames/s and back up all that data almost as fast...