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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,960

The CRISPR Handbook – Enabling Genome Editing and Transforming Life Science Research is GenScript’s comprehensive guide to the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing revolution. This new resource includes:

An introductory history of genome editing. The current applications for CRISPR/Cas9 in genome editing. An updated overview of expanded CRISPR research applications, including immunoprecipitation, epigenetic modification, live imaging, and therapeutics. New CRISPR/Cas9 workflows and case studies to help you start using this technology in your research.

CRISPR Handbook – Enabling Genome Editing and Transforming Life Science Research. Free PDF download on the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing revolution, including CRISPR KO & KI workflows, case studies, and references.

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Researchers have converted human stem cells into insulin-producing cells and demonstrated in mice infused with such cells that blood sugar levels can be controlled and diabetes functionally cured for nine months.

The findings, from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, are published online Feb. 24 in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

“These mice had very severe diabetes with blood sugar readings of more than 500 milligrams per deciliter of blood — levels that could be fatal for a person — and when we gave the mice the insulin-secreting cells, within two weeks their blood glucose levels had returned to normal and stayed that way for many months,” said principal investigator Jeffrey R. Millman, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine and of biomedical engineering at Washington University.

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The Neolithic revolution, and the corresponding transition to agricultural and pastoralist lifestyles, represents one of the greatest cultural shifts in human history, and it has long been hypothesized that this might have also provided the opportunity for the emergence of human-adapted diseases. A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution led by Felix M. Key, Alexander Herbig, and Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History studied human remains excavated across Western Eurasia and reconstructed eight ancient Salmonella enterica genomes—all part of a related group within the much larger diversity of modern S. enterica. These results illuminate what was likely a serious health concern in the past and reveal how this bacterial pathogen evolved over a period of 6,500 years.

Searching for ancient pathogens

Most do not cause any lasting impact on the skeleton, which can make identifying affected archaeological remains difficult for scientists. In order to identify past diseases and reconstruct their histories, researchers have turned to genetic techniques. Using a newly developed bacterial screening pipeline called HOPS, Key and colleagues were able to overcome many of the challenges of finding ancient pathogens in metagenomics data.

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WASHINGTON: Scientists have found that people who have a variant of a longevity gene have improved brain skills such as thinking, learning and memory. Researchers found that increasing levels of the gene, called KLOTHO, in mice made them smarter, possibly by increasing the strength of connections between nerve cells in the brain.

“This could be a major step toward helping millions around the world who are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias,” said Dena Dubal, an assistant professor of neurology, the David A Coulter Endowed Chair in Aging and Neurodegeneration at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the lead author of the study published in Cell Reports. “If we could boost the brain’s ability to function, we may be able to counter dementias,” Dubal said.

People who have one copy of a variant, or form, of the KLOTHO gene, called KL-VS, tend to live longer and have lower chances of suffering a stroke whereas people who have two copies may live shorter lives and have a higher risk of stroke. In the study, researchers found that people who had one copy of the KL-VS variant performed better on a battery of cognitive tests than subjects who did not have it, regardless of age, sex or the presence of the apolipoprotein 4 gene, the main genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.

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Atherosclerosis progresses is driven by chronic inflammation, the more sources of low-grade, smoldering inflammation, the faster atherosclerosis could develop. Gum disease is one such source of inflammation and is associated with a higher incidence of strokes.

Patients with gum disease were three times as likely to have a stroke involving blood vessels in the back of the brain, which controls vision, coordination and other vital bodily functions; and.

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