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Searching for Secrets in Single Cells

Posted on by Darcia Schweitzer

There has been a lot of effort recently to perform whole genome sequencing, for humans and other species. The results yield new frontiers of data analysis that offer a lot of promise for groundbreaking scientific discoveries.

One objective of human genome sequencing has been to identify sources of disease and new therapeutic targets. This movement has opened the door to create personalized medicine for cancer, whereby the genetic makeup of an individual’s tumors can be used to determine the most effective drug intervention to administer.

Interest in studying the characteristics unique to individual cells seems obvious when considering the function of healthy cells versus tumor cells, or brain cells compared to heart cells. What has surprised scientists is the realization that two cells in the same tissue can be more different from each other, genetically, than from a cell in another organ.

For example, a small number of brain cells with a specific mutation can lead to some forms of epilepsy while healthy people may also carry cells with these mutations, but too few to cause disease. The lineage of a cell, where it came from and what events shaped its development, ultimately determines what diseases can exist.

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Rapid DNA Act of 2017: What is It?

Posted on by Kelly Grooms
Copyright: robynmac / 123RF Stock Photo

On May 16, 2017, the U.S House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate passed the Rapid DNA Act of 2017 (H.R.510 and S.139, respectively). The bill was sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis) and enjoyed bipartisan support, ending up with seven Republican and five Democratic cosponsors in the Senate, and seventeen Republican and seven Democratic cosponsors in the House. The bill was passed by unanimous consent voice votes in both chambers.

So what is the Rapid DNA Act of 2017 all about?

Simply put, the act will expand the use of rapid DNA technology in law enforcement departments by creating a way for them to use the results they get by connecting them to the FBIs Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Still curious? Read on and you will learn much more about what the Rapid DNA Act of 2017 does and doesn’t do.

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Findings May Reveal Earliest Evidence of Selective Dog Breeding

Posted on by Kari Kenefick
Image showing DeLong chain of islands.
Zhokhov Island is part of the DeLong chain of islands off the north coast of Siberia. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

A report in the June 2, 2017 edition of Science magazine digs into findings from an ancient archaeological site on the very remote and very, very cold Zhokhov Island, to show that the locals, hardy human hunters, not only lived and worked with dogs, but also quite probably selectively bred the dogs for certain traits.

Archaeologist Vladmir Pitulko with the Russian Academy of Sciences has been excavating on Zhokhov Island since 1989, where he has found dog bones as well as remnants of wooden sleds. With archaezoologist Aleksey Kasparov, also of the RAS, they’ve compared two of the most complete dog skulls found to those of contemporary Siberian Huskies and wolves.

Pitulko and Kasparov wanted to first determine if the skulls were those of dogs or wolves. They first employed two key skull ratios: snout height to skull length and cranium height to skull length. Using these ratios, they were able to reliably distinguish between skulls of a modern wolf and husky.

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Creating ART from 3D Printed Ovaries

Posted on by Darcia Schweitzer

It is remarkable to me how quickly in vitro fertilization has gone from an experimental, controversial and prohibitively expensive procedure to becoming a mainstream option for those struggling with fertility issues. What was unheard of in my parents’ generation is nothing extraordinary among my friends who are having children.

My personal observations are supported by the CDC, which reported that 1.6% of all infants born in the U.S. in 2015 were the result of assisted reproductive technology (ART). This is a 33% increase since 2006, which can be attributed to rapid advances and refinements of the various technologies available to those seeking reproductive assistance.

It challenges the mind to imagine what reproductive technologies might be widespread when my children and their friends are adults. When experts speculate about the future of human reproduction, there always seems to be a lot of focus on provocative scenarios that portend a dystopian future, such as designer babies. What gets lost are some of the more general scientific advances that are being applied to ART in fascinating ways.

While improvements in reproductive technologies serve many, one group that remains underserved are pediatric cancer patients. As a result of treatment, these patients are often faced with impaired ovarian function that can prevent puberty and result in infertility. In vitro fertilization and ovarian transplants are currently used, but do not provide lasting solutions for all individuals.

In response to this need, researchers are working to develop an organ replacement that can provide long-term hormone function and fertility for all patients.  A recent study in Nature Communications presented encouraging results in mice using bioprosthetic ovaries that may further revolutionize the field of ART.

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In Healthy Eating Less is More: The Science Behind Intermittent Fasting

Posted on by Kari Kenefick

Mix a love of eating with a desire to live a long, healthy life what do you get? Probably the average 21st-century person looking for a way to continue enjoying food despite insufficient exercise and/or an age-related decline in caloric needs.

Enter intermittent fasting, a topic that has found its way into most news sources, from National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publications to WebMD and even the popular press. For instance, National Public Radio’s “The Salt” writers have tried and written about their experiences with dietary restriction.

While fasting has enjoyed fad-like popularity over the past several years, it is not new. Fasting, whether purposely not eating or eating a restricted diet, has been practiced for 1,000s of years. What is new is research studies from which we are learning the physiologic effects of fasting and other forms of decreased nutrient intake.

You may have heard the claims that fasting makes people smarter, more focused, and thinner. Researchers today are using cell and animal models, and even human subjects, to measure biochemical responses at the cellular level to restricted nutrient intake and meal timing, in part to prove/disprove such claims (1,2).

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Knots: Friend or Foe?

Posted on by Darcia Schweitzer
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Knots affect our lives in perplexing ways. They can perform life-saving assistance, such as during rock climbing, or provide Sisyphean puzzles of entanglement. Often, knots seem to have the contrarian personality of an adolescent. They loosen and unwind when you want them to stay fastened, and inevitably form tangles of confounding complexity when you seek to avoid them. These puzzling characteristics of knots were brought to mind when I read two recent articles about the scientific investigation of knots.

Why Knots Fail

The explanation of how shoelaces come untied, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, was quite prevalent in the news cycle recently. After observing slow-motion video footage of the shoelaces of a runner on a treadmill, researchers were able to explain how motion affects knots and results in untied shoelaces.

First, they observed that the failure of a knot is not a gradual process, but happens abruptly over the course of only one or two strides. This is possible due to the surprising amount of force generated by the impact of one step, which this study calculated to be an average of 7 g—more than twice the g-force experienced by the Space Shuttle upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

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Making a Case for Basic Research Funding

Posted on by Darcia Schweitzer

The value of public funding for “basic” versus “applied” research has long been questioned. To address this debate, the authors of a recent report in Science performed a large-scale evaluation of the value of public investment in biomedical research. After analyzing the relationship between the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants and private patents, they found that distinguishing research as basic or applied is not useful in determining the productivity of grant funding.

Genetic research at the laboratory

The $30 billion annual budget of the NIH makes it the largest source of life science funding in the world and provides a third of all US biomedical research and development. Although there has long been a strong argument for public investment in scientific research, attacks on the tangible benefits of this research persist. In particular, some opponents argue that “basic” research is too far removed from practical applications to be worthy of investment.

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So NASA Found Some New Exoplanets…Now What?

Posted on by Darcia Schweitzer
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You have probably heard a lot of excitement over NASA’s recent announcement about the discovery of seven earth-size planets found orbiting around the star TRAPPIST-1, which is part of the constellation Aquarius.

These exoplanets are notable because they exist within the habitable zone of the star (nicknamed Goldilocks planets because this area is not too hot and not too cold) and are probably rocky with the potential to contain water on their surface.

A lot of the enthusiasm revolves around the hope that one of these exoplanets might harbor extraterrestrial life or could be suitable for human inhabitants. Of course, many further observations must be made to determine if these scenarios are plausible, not to mention the huge advances in technology that would need to occur so we could actually verify the planetary conditions or send humans 40 light-years away.

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Widening the Proteolysis Bottleneck: A New Protein Sample Preparation Tool

Posted on by Kari Kenefick
The poster featured in this blog provides background information and data on development of Rapid Digestion-Trypsin.
The poster featured in this blog provides background information and data on the development of Rapid Digestion-Trypsin.

Improvements in Protein Bioprocessing

As more and more protein-based therapeutics enter research pipelines, more efficient protocols are needed. In particular, we need better protocols for the characterization of protein structure and function, as well as means of quantitation. One main step in this pipeline, proteolysis of these proteins into peptides, presents a bottleneck and can require optimization of multiple steps including reduction, alkylation and digestion time.

We have developed a new trypsin reagent, Rapid Digestion–Trypsin, that streamlines the protein sample preparation process. This new development significantly reduces the time to achieve proteolysis to about 1 hour, a remarkable improvement over existing overnight sample preparation times.

How Does it Work?

With this new trypsin product, proteolysis is performed at 70°C, incorporating both denaturation and rapid digestion. The protocol can be used with multiple protein types, including pure proteins and complex mixtures, and is compatible with digestion under native, reduced or nonreduced conditions.

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Restoring Memory in Alzheimer’s Mice with Microbubbles and Ultrasound

Posted on by Kelly Grooms
Neurons with amyloid plaques.
Neurons with amyloid plaques.

Imagine driving in your car and suddenly not recognizing where you were going and having no idea how to find your way home. What if you looked across the breakfast table at your spouse and no longer recognized them?  Or maybe you have to brace yourself every time you visit your parent, waiting for the day when they won’t know who you are. This is the reality for the estimated 50 million (worldwide) Alzheimer’s disease sufferers and their families.

In a world with an aging population, Alzheimer’s is a growing problem. Recent estimates suggest that 11% of people over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s disease. For people 85 and older, that number increases to 32% (1).

Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating degenerative brain disease. It is the most common cause of dementia and is characterized by a decline in cognitive skills such as memory, language skills, communication and problem-solving abilities. These symptoms make it difficult for people with Alzheimer’s to perform everyday activities. It also is difficult to diagnose, even more, difficult to treat, and, as of now, impossible to cure.

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