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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 23, 2014 at 9:04am

Agenetic disease has been cured in living, adult animals for the first time using a revolutionary genome-editing technique that can make the smallest changes to the vast database of the DNA molecule with pinpoint accuracy.

Scientists have used the genome-editing technology to cure adult laboratory mice of an inherited liver disease by correcting a single "letter" of the genetic alphabet which had been mutated in a vital gene involved in liver metabolism. A similar mutation in the same gene causes the equivalent inherited liver disease in humans — and the successful repair of the genetic defect in laboratory mice raises hopes that the first clinical trials on patients could begin within a few years, scientists said.

The success is the latest achievement in the field of genome editing. This has been transformed by the discovery of Crispr, a technology that allows scientists to make almost any DNA changes at precisely defined points on the chromosomes of animals or plants.

Crispr — pronounced "crisper" — was initially discovered in 1987 as an immune defence used by bacteria against invading viruses. Its powerful genome-editing potential in higher animals, including humans, was only fully realised in 2012 and 2013 when scientists showed that it can be combined with a DNAsniping enzyme called Cas9 and used to edit the human genome . Since then there has been an explosion of interest in the technology because it is such a simple method of changing the individual letters of the human genome — the 3 billion "base pairs" of the DNA molecule — with an accuracy equivalent to correcting a single misspelt word in a 23-volume encyclopaedia.

In the latest study, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used Crispr to locate and correct the single mutated DNA base pair in a liver gene known as LAH, which can lead to a fatal build-up of the amino acid tyrosine in humans and has to be treated with drugs and a special diet. The researchers effectively cured mice suffering from the disease by altering the genetic make-up of about a third of their liver cells using the Crispr technique, which was delivered by high-pressure intravenous injections.

"We basically showed you could use the Crispr system in an animal to cure a genetic disease, and the one we picked was a disease in the liver which is very similar to one found in humans," said professor Daniel Anderson of MIT, who led the study.

"The disease is caused by a single point mutation and we showed that the Crispr system can be delivered in an adult animal and result in a cure. We think it's an important proof of principle that this technology can be applied to animals to cure disease," Anderson said. "The fundamental advantage is that you are repairing the defect , you are actually correcting the DNA itself," he said. "What is exciting about this approach is that we can actually correct a defective gene in a living adult animal."

Jennifer Doudna, of the University of California, Berkeley , who was one of the codiscoverers of the Crispr technique , said professor Anderson's study is a "fantastic advance" because it demonstrates that it is possible to cure adult animals living with a genetic disorder.

"Obviously there would be numerous hurdles before such an approach could be used in people, but the simplicity of the approach, and the fact that it worked, really are very exciting," professor Doudna said. "I think there will be a lot of progress made in the coming one to two years in using this approach for therapeutics and other real-world applications," she added.
''Scientists ‘edit’ DNA to correct adult genes and cure diseases ''
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/revealed-scientists-edit-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 23, 2014 at 8:57am

Parts of Antarctica, one of the coldest places on Earth, were as warm as today's California coast about 40 million years ago with temperatures as high as 17 degrees Celsius, a new study has found.

Researchers also found that the polar regions of the southern Pacific Ocean once registered 21st-century Florida heat.

The findings underscore the potential for increased warmth at Earth's poles and the associated risk of melting polar ice and rising sea levels, the researchers said.

Led by scientists at Yale University, the study focused on Antarctica during the Eocene epoch, 40-50 million years ago, a period with high concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and consequently a greenhouse climate.

Today, Antarctica is year-round one of the coldest places on Earth, and the continent's interior is the coldest place, with annual average land temperatures far below zero degrees Fahrenheit.

The new measurements can help improve climate models used for predicting future climate, according to co-author Hagit Affek, associate professor of geology & geophysics at Yale.
-PTI

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 23, 2014 at 8:55am

Research at the University of Adelaide has shed new light onto the possible causes of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), which could help to prevent future loss of children’s lives.

Researchers in the University’s School of Medical Sciences have found that telltale signs in the brains of babies that have died of SIDS are remarkably similar to those of children who died of accidental asphyxiation.
'β-Amyloid precursor protein staining of the brain in sudden infant and early childhood death'
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nan.12109/abstract;jsess...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 23, 2014 at 8:53am

Mechanisms of charge transfer and redistribution in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 revealed by high-energy optical conductivity
Researchers from Singapore and Germany have found a new way to study the curious properties observed at the interface of materials.
An international team led by researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a technique to study the interface between materials, shedding light on the curious properties that arise when two materials are put together.

Studying material interfaces is part of a research area known as condensed matter physics. When matter is condensed, mutual interactions between particles alters physical behavior, giving rise to exotic properties. A better understanding of how materials interface allows scientists to tweak material properties to possibly develop better solar cells, superconductors and smaller hard drives.

“If you put two materials together, you can create completely new properties. For instance, two non-conducting, non-magnetic insulators can become conducting and in some cases ferromagnetic and superconducting at their interface,” explains NUS Assistant Professor Andrivo Rusydi, who led the research.

The team investigated the electrical conductivity of strontium titanate and lanthanum aluminate, two insulators that become conductors at their interface. They observed that conductivity was ten-fold less than what was predicted theoretically, meaning that 90 percent of the expected electrons were missing.

To find the missing electrons, the team used high-energy reflectivity and spectroscopic ellipsometry experiments which flooded the interface with a wide range of energy. This revealed electrons that were bound within the molecular lattice, which prevented them from moving and explained the observed low conductivity.

The team’s new approach and insights, which culminated in a recent publication with Nature Communications, will be used for further investigations on the basic interface characteristics among materials.

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140414/ncomms4663/full/ncomms4663...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 23, 2014 at 8:51am

Citizen scientists pitch new uses for paper microscope
Ten thousand ‘print-and-fold’ paper microscopes initially designed as low-cost medical diagnostic tools are being given away to researchers and citizen scientists who come up with novel ways to use them to test their ideas.

The goal of the Ten Thousand Microscopes initiative, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, is to create a crowdsourced lab manual for Foldscope, the low-cost microscope launched earlier this year by a US bioengineering team that combines pragmatic, origami design with sophisticated micro-optics.

The idea is to make “microscopy for everyone”, says Manu Prakash, a bioengineering researcher at Stanford University, United States, who led the development of the frugal innovation to address the lack of cheap, easy-to-use diagnostic tools for diseases in remote and impoverished communities.
http://www.scidev.net/global/biotechnology/news/citizen-scientists-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 23, 2014 at 8:32am

Cow poop promotes the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria

Manure from dairy cows has been defined as an increasing source of bacteria that can become resistant to antibiotics. These findings are the result of the work of Fabienne Wichmann and colleagues at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The research was published in the April 22, 2014, edition of the journal mBio®.

Bacteria that are antibiotic resistant reach the food chain of humans through the use of cow manure as fertilizer. The manure may or may not contain bacteria that are antibiotic resistant. If the manure does contain an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria then there is a potential for transmission to humans that eat food that was fertilized with cow manure. The food plants can even become a source of antibiotic resistance due to the phenomenon of gene exchange between species.

A more prominent and more likely transfer of new antibiotic bacterial species to humans is through infection of cow farmers by new bacterial strains. The dairy cow farmers can transmit a new disease directly to other humans through physical contact or through airborne distribution during coughing or sneezing. The more humans that come into contact with a potentially antibiotic resistant type of bacteria increases the probability that the bacteria will become resistant to antibiotics due in part to the high level of use of antibiotics by humans.

The researchers found that only five samples of cow manure contained 80 unique and functional antibiotic resistance genes. The scientists created a laboratory cultured strain of Escherichia coli that was resistant to one of the four major types of antibiotics used to treat humans from the 80 genes. The scientists also found a never before known family of antibiotic resistant genes that conferred resistance to the same group of antibiotics.

A primary source of antibiotic resistant bacteria origination is the use of antibiotics to keep cattle healthy. The potential for transfer of antibiotic resistance to humans through food crops depends on whether the cow manure has antibiotic resistant bacteria or genes. It is possible that a new antibiotic resistant disease could be contracted by people simply by using cow manure as fertilizer for their house plants or home garden.
Source: http://www.examiner.com/article/cow-poop-promotes-the-spread-of-ant...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 23, 2014 at 7:10am

Antibiotics: A new spanner in the works of bacterial transcription
A promising molecular target that is unlikely to develop antibiotic resistance has been identified in bacteria.
http://elifesciences.org/content/3/e02840

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 23, 2014 at 6:12am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 22, 2014 at 9:06am

The connection between heart attack fight and birds
A new study into how the world's highest flying bird, bar-headed geese, is able to survive at extreme altitudes may have future implications for low-oxygen medical conditions in humans. An international team of scientists recently tracked bar-headed geese while they migrated across the Himalayas. They found that these birds are able to tolerate running at top speed while breathing only 7% oxygen.

Lucy Hawkes of the University of Exeter, along with colleagues Charles Bishop (Bangor University) and Pat Butler (University of Birmingham) tested how the geese were at coping with exercise in reduced oxygen environments by simulating the conditions of Mt Everest in a clear box and then getting the birds to run as fast as possible on a treadmill inside the box. The air on the highest mountains is made up of 7% oxygen compared with 21% at sea level.

Hawkes said, "It all seems to come down to how much oxygen bar-headed geese can supply to their heart muscles. The more they supply, the faster their heart beats and keeps the supply of oxygen to the rest of the body going." He added, "The wider implications of these findings are for low-oxygen medical conditions in humans, such as heart attack and stroke — suggesting what adaptations might help prevent problems in the first place and learning how animals have managed to cope with really extreme environments."
-TNN

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 22, 2014 at 8:58am

Elections 2014: Politicians told to do more for science and technology
The scientific community demands that the next government at the centre set aside a bigger chunk of the budget for research and development, create infrastructure for "continuous innovations" and boost science movements among the electorate and dovetail this with the private sector's aid.
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/science/news/election-2014-politicians-told...

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