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    HIV Eliminated from the Genomes of Living Animals

    July 5, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    A working model for HIV-1 elimination. A cartoon illustration of the viral elimination strategy is shown for single LASER ART, AAV9-CRISPR-Cas9 injection groups and dual treatment groups. We highlight the observed restriction of viral infection by LASER ART and an inability to achieve elimination of virus by AAV9-CRISPR-Cas9 treatment alone. However, the sequential administration of LASER ART and AAV9-CRISPR-Cas9 can achieve viral elimination in a subset of animals. Why specific animals are cured of infection while others are not is incompletely understood but tied, in measure, to viral set points

    Researchers have for the first time eliminated replication-competent HIV-1 DNA – the virus responsible for AIDS – from the genomes of living animals...

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    Ultra-Small Nanoprobes could be a leap forward in High-Resolution Human-Machine Interfaces

    July 5, 2019, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Biology/Biotechnology

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    U-shaped nanowires can record electrical chatter inside a brain or heart cell without causing any damage. The devices are 100 times smaller than their biggest competitors, which kill a cell after recording. Credit: Lieber Group, Harvard University

    Machine enhanced humans – or cyborgs as they are known in science fiction – could be one step closer to becoming a reality, thanks to new research Lieber Group at Harvard University, as well as scientists from University of Surrey and Yonsei University.

    Researchers have conquered the monumental task of manufacturing scalable nanoprobe arrays small enough to record the inner workings of human cardiac cells and primary neurons.

    The ability to read electrical activities from cells is the foundation of many biomedical procedures, such as ...

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    Astronomers Help Wage War on Cancer

    July 5, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Biology/Biotechnology

    A model showing light (red/yellow) penetrating the surface of the human breast (white triangles). Credit: T. Harries

    A model showing light (red/yellow) penetrating the surface of the human breast (white triangles). Credit: T. Harries

    Techniques developed by astronomers could help in the fight against breast and skin cancer. A large part of astronomy depends on the detection and analysis of light. For example, scientists study the light scattered, absorbed and re-emitted in clouds of gas and dust, obtaining information on their interior.

    Despite the vast differences in scale, the processes that light undergoes when travelling through the human body are very similar to those seen in space. And when things go wrong – when tissue becomes cancerous – that change should show up.

    In the UK, nearly 60,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and 12,000 die...

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    Researchers grow Active Mini-Brain-Networks

    July 4, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Self-Organized Neural Network Formation by Dissociation of Cerebral Organoids

    Cerebral organoids are artificially grown, 3D tissue cultures that resemble the human brain. Now, researchers from Japan report functional neural networks derived from these organoids in a study publishing June 27 in the journal Stem Cell Reports. Although the organoids aren’t actually “thinking,” the researchers’ new tool – which detects neural activity using organoids – could provide a method for understanding human brain function.

    “Because they can mimic cerebral development, cerebral organoids can be used as a substitute for the human brain to study complex developmental and neurological disorders,” says corresponding author Jun Takahashi, a professor at Kyoto University.

    However, these studies ar...

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