Accurate sexual health information on TikTok? It’s this UCLA doctor’s mission

UCLA Health’s Dr. Russell Johnson educates and empowers on TikTok with accurate sexual health information Dr. Russell Johnson, UCLA Health primary care physician and HIV and sexual health expert, is available for interview on the following topics: Intersection of medicine,…

Changes Upstream: RIPE team uses CRISPR/Cas9 to alter photosynthesis for the first time

A RIPE team used CRISPR/Cas9 to increase gene expression in rice by changing its upstream regulatory DNA. Their work is the first unbiased gene-editing approach to increase gene expression and downstream photosynthetic activity and was recently published in Science Advances.

A gene mutation associated with a rare neurological disorder and increased susceptibility to viral infections may be treatable with oleic acid

A mutation in a protein regulating natural killer (NK) cells’ function is at the root of immune deficiency in some people with a rare genetic condition characterized by cognitive and developmental delay, seizures, and other manifestations. The findings also have broader implications for immunity and cell therapies.

Green Genetic Engineering: Making Mendel’s Dream Come True with Molecular Scissors

Molecular biologist Professor Holger Puchta from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is granted funding within a Reinhart Koselleck Project by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for work on specific restructuring of plant genomes. Puchta, a pioneer of green genetic engineering,…

Cancer Research Institute Awards Over $28 Million in Grants to Fuel Immunotherapy Innovations

The Cancer Research Institute awarded $28.7 million in research grants and fellowships in the 2023 fiscal year ending June 30, 2023. In total, CRI distributed 73 awards that will advance cancer immunology research at 41 institutions in 10 countries. CRI grants were awarded to support projects involving a variety of immune-based approaches as well as the development of novel technologies that may help pave the way for the next generation of immunotherapies.

AI and CRISPR Precisely Control Gene Expression

The study by researchers at New York University, Columbia Engineering, and the New York Genome Center, combines a deep learning model with CRISPR screens to control the expression of human genes in different ways—such as flicking a light switch to shut them off completely or by using a dimmer knob to partially turn down their activity. These precise gene controls could be used to develop new CRISPR-based therapies.

New understanding of why kidney cancers become metastatic discovered by MD Anderson researchers

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer have engineered a new model of aggressive renal cell carcinoma (RCC), highlighting molecular targets and genomic events that trigger chromosomal instability and drive metastatic progression.
The study, published today in Nature Cancer, demonstrates that the loss of a cluster of interferon receptor (IFNR) genes plays a pivotal role in allowing cancer cells to become tolerant of chromosomal instability. This genomic feature may be used to help clinicians predict a tumor’s potential to become metastatic and treatment resistant.

Novel Gene Therapy Proving Safe and Successful in Sickle Cell Patients Treated at Cleveland Clinic Children’s

Researchers presenting preliminary data from a clinical trial aimed at discovering a cure for sickle cell disease reveal positive results among its first patients. Sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder, is a painful and debilitating condition for which there are few approved therapies.

新的基因编辑技术成功地逆转小鼠的视力损失

视网膜色素变性症是人类失明的主要原因之一。中国的研究人员成功地恢复了患有视网膜色素变性症的小鼠的视力。该研究将于[三月十七日]发表在《实验医学杂志》上。该研究使用一种新型的、高度通用的CRISPR基因组编辑技术,有潜力纠正各种导致疾病的遗传突变。

New gene-editing technique reverses vision loss in mice

Researchers in China have successfully restored the vision of mice with retinitis pigmentosa, one of the major causes of blindness in humans. The study, to be published March 17 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, uses a new, highly versatile form of CRISPR-based genome editing with the potential to correct a wide variety of disease-causing genetic mutations.

Hijacking the Hijackers: Engineering Bacterial Viruses to Genetically Modify their Hosts

Most methods of editing bacterial genomes use plasmids to transfer DNA between bacterial cells, but this approach isn’t always efficient in mixed microbial communities. This research instead developed a new phage-based DNA delivery tool that leverages these viruses’ ability to inject DNA into host bacteria. The researchers also used this tool to edit individual genes inside a target host organism within a living microbial community.

MD Anderson Research Highlights for June 29, 2022

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights provides a glimpse into recent basic, translational and clinical cancer research from MD Anderson experts. Current advances include a lower-intensity therapy for acute myeloid leukemia, a new target for treating chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, real-world synthetic controls for clinical trials in rare cancers, a potential biomarker to predict endocrine therapy response in breast cancer, integrated CRISPR screens to identify novel tumor suppressors, and a deeper knowledge of the immune tumor microenvironment in melanoma-derived brain metastases.

Low levels of high-risk salmonella evade traditional methods of detection

Poultry is responsible for more than one out of every five cases of salmonella infection in the U.S. But traditional methods of testing the chicken you grab off the grocery shelf may not be enough to detect all strains of the bacteria, according to new research from the University of Georgia.

A ‘factory reset’ for the brain cures anxiety, drinking behavior

Gene editing may be a potential treatment for anxiety and alcohol use disorder in adults who were exposed to binge drinking in their adolescence, according to the results of an animal study published in the journal Science Advances. The researchers used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-dCas9 in their experiments to manipulate the histone acetylation and methylation processes at the Arc gene in models of adult rats.

GW Wins Contract to Develop Antidote-Bearing Organisms to Protect Against Biological, Chemical Threats

The George Washington University has been awarded a $3.6 million contract to genetically modify commensal organisms to produce antidotes for harmful biological and chemical agents, such as anthrax, Ebola, and even COVID-19.

Genetics/biotech expert offers comments & availability on IVG (in vitro gametogenesis) major breakthrough

A groundbreaking study demonstrating the most advanced form of in vitro gametogenesis (making eggs from stem cells, IVG) was published Thursday in Science. See STAT’s coverage of the study.  Regarding the study and breakthrough, Dr. Kevin Doxzen offers the below comments…

UM School Of Medicine Researchers Receive NIH Avant Garde Award For Out-Of-Box, Innovative Concept To Cure HIV And Treat Co-Existing Addiction

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Professor of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, Linda Chang, MD, MS, received the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) 2021 Avant Garde Award (DP1) for HIV/AIDS and Substance Use Disorder Research — a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Pioneer Award.

With gene therapy, scientists develop opioid-free solution for chronic pain

A gene therapy for chronic pain could offer a safer, non-addictive alternative to opioids. Researchers at the University of California San Diego developed the new therapy, which works by temporarily repressing a gene involved in sensing pain. It increased pain tolerance in mice, lowered their sensitivity to pain and provided months of pain relief without causing numbness.

Potential Target for Treating Many Cancers Found Within GLI1 Gene

Scientists from the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago found that a region within the DNA of the cancer-promoting GLI1 gene is directly responsible for regulating this gene’s expression. These findings, published in the journal Stem Cells, imply that this region within GLI1 could potentially be targeted as cancer treatment, since turning off GLI1 would interrupt excessive cell division characteristic of cancer.