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Thinking ‘Out-of-the-box’ May Build a Better Brain and Prevent Dementia

With disease-modifying treatment trials for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) currently unsuccessful and only medications to treat symptoms available, what now? A leading neuroscientist has developed the “Dementia Prevention Initiative,” which abandons generalized ways to research and treat AD. His secret weapon: a novel “N-of-1 design” that tailors medicine down to a single patient. Instead of conducting a conventional trial of 100 people all getting the same treatment, he has switched it around and is conducting 100 single personalized trials.

Enhancing the Sensing of Diamonds, Mobile Microgrids, Self-Folding Robots, and More in the Engineering News Source

The latest research and features in the Newswise Engineering News Source

Researchers Compose Guidelines for Handling CAR T Cell Side Effects

Immune-cell based therapies opening a new frontier for cancer treatment carry unique, potentially lethal side effects that provide a new challenge for oncologists, one addressed by a team led by clinicians at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with proposed guidelines for systematically dealing with the toxicities of these drugs.

Cells Programmed Like Computers to Fight Disease

Cells can be programmed like a computer to fight cancer, influenza, and other serious conditions – thanks to a breakthrough in synthetic biology by the University of Warwick.

Checking Your Neck, Colon Cancer Screening, New Microfluidic Device, and More in the Cancer News Source

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Revolutionary Process Could Signal New Era for Gene Synthesis

A team of scientists led by the University of Southampton has demonstrated a groundbreaking new method of gene synthesis – a vital research tool with real-world applications in everything from growing transplantable organs to developing treatments for cancer.

Genome Sequence Is Not a Predictor of Radiation Resistance

Bethesda, Md. – For the last two decades, researchers worldwide have been using whole genome sequencing to understand what makes cells radiation-resistant, hoping to solve an old biological mystery: why is it that one of the most radiation-resistant organisms, Deinococcus radiodurans, aka “Conan the bacterium,” can survive hundreds of times more DNA damage caused by gamma rays than most other organisms? According to a study published recently in Standards of Genomic Sciences by researchers at the Uniformed Services University (USU), the amount of radiation a Deinococcus cell can survive in fact has little to do with the number and types of its DNA repair proteins.

Key Factor Identified in Gene Silencing

Hengbin Wang and colleagues describe a key role for a protein called RSF1 in silencing genes. Besides the molecular biology details, the researchers also showed that disruption of RSF1 expression in the embryos of African clawed frogs caused severe developmental defects in the tadpoles.

Dr. Bishop @Uchicagomed Knows CAR T-Cell Therapy Backward and Forward

UChicago Medicine Working to Offer Breakthrough CAR T-Cell Gene Therapy Approved Today by FDA

The University of Chicago Medicine is one of a limited number of U.S. sites working to offer a breakthrough gene therapy for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), which was just approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.