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    CRISPR/Cas9 Silences Gene Associated with High Cholesterol

    April 28, 2018, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Histological sections of liver from control mice treated with saline (left) and the CRISPR/Cas9 epigenetic repression system in which cholesterol levels were lowered (right) show generally normal and healthy tissue. Credit: Charles Gersbach, Duke University

    Histological sections of liver from control mice treated with saline (left) and the CRISPR/Cas9 epigenetic repression system in which cholesterol levels were lowered (right) show generally normal and healthy tissue. Credit: Charles Gersbach, Duke University

    Technique allowed researchers to reduce blood cholesterol levels in adult mice for six months following a single treatment. Biomedical engineers at Duke University have used a CRISPR/Cas9 genetic engineering technique to turn off a gene that regulates cholesterol levels in adult mice, leading to reduced blood cholesterol levels and gene repression lasting for six months after a single treatment.

    This marks the first time researchers have delivered CRISPR/Cas9 repressors for targeted therapeutic gene silencing in adult animal models...

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    Molecular Evolution: How the Building Blocks of Life may Form in Space

    April 27, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Star forming region (Pillars of Creation) in the Eagle Nebula. Low-energy electrons, created in matter by space radiation (e.g., galactic cosmic rays, GCR, etc.), can induce formation of glycine (2HN-CH2-COOH) in astrophysical molecular ices; here, icy grains of interstellar dust (or ices on planetary satellites) are simulated by ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide condensed at 20 K on Pt in UHV, and irradiated by 0-70 eV LEEs. Credit: NASA, Hubble, STScI

    Star forming region (Pillars of Creation) in the Eagle Nebula. Low-energy electrons, created in matter by space radiation (e.g., galactic cosmic rays, GCR, etc.), can induce formation of glycine (2HN-CH2-COOH) in astrophysical molecular ices; here, icy grains of interstellar dust (or ices on planetary satellites) are simulated by ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide condensed at 20 K on Pt in UHV, and irradiated by 0-70 eV LEEs. Credit: NASA, Hubble, STScI

    New research offers evidence that humans – and the rest of life on Earth – may have been able to form with the right combination of star dust and radiation...

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    Magma Ocean may be Responsible for the Moon’s early Magnetic Field

    April 27, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The bottom-most layer of the moon's mantle melts to form a metal-rich "basal magma ocean" that sits on top of the moon's metal core. Convection in this layer may have driven a dynamo, creating a magnetic field which would have been recorded at the surface by the cooling lunar crust, including the samples brought back by Apollo astronauts. Credit: Aaron Scheinberg

    The bottom-most layer of the moon’s mantle melts to form a metal-rich “basal magma ocean” that sits on top of the moon’s metal core. Convection in this layer may have driven a dynamo, creating a magnetic field which would have been recorded at the surface by the cooling lunar crust, including the samples brought back by Apollo astronauts. Credit: Aaron Scheinberg

    Around 4 billion years ago, the Moon had a magnetic field that was about as strong as Earth’s magnetic field is today. How the Moon, with a much smaller core than Earth’s, could have had such a strong magnetic field has been an unsolved problem in the history of the Moon’s evolution...

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    Culprit in Reducing Effectiveness of Insulin identified

    April 27, 2018, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    1) Fasting or obesity induces SDF-1 expression in adipocytes. 2) Its autocrine action activates ERK signaling. 3) SDF-1-induced ERK signal concomitantly induces serine phosphorylation of IRS-1 protein, and degrades IRS-1 protein. This attenuates 4) insulin-mediated Akt phosphorylation and 5) glucose uptake. Credit: Osaka University

    1) Fasting or obesity induces SDF-1 expression in adipocytes. 2) Its autocrine action activates ERK signaling. 3) SDF-1-induced ERK signal concomitantly induces serine phosphorylation of IRS-1 protein, and degrades IRS-1 protein. This attenuates 4) insulin-mediated Akt phosphorylation and 5) glucose uptake. Credit: Osaka University

    Scientists at Osaka University discovered that Stromal derived factor-1 (SDF-1) secreted from adipocytes reduced the effectiveness of insulin in adipocytes and decreased insulin-induced glucose uptake. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas and helps cells to take in glucose from the blood. Insulin binds to insulin receptors to activate Insulin Receptor Substrate 1 (IRS-1), taking in sugar through phosphorylation of Akt...

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