For the second year in a row, life expectancy in the United States declined due to an opioid crisis. Scientists have high hopes for a new opioid vaccine developed by the US military, that shows promising results in mice and rats.
COFFEE BREAK NEWS FOR LIFE SCIENTISTS
Breakthroughs in 2017 That Caught Our Attention
The pace of progress in science in recent years is remarkable. Mostly, due to the fact that processes which took weeks to complete can now be done in minutes. Therefore, the past year was definitely fruitful for science. Scientists cooperated and even some global scale projects saw the light of day. Splice would like to review the important highlights that made 2017 special.
Engineers 3D Print a “Living Bacterial Tattoo”
MIT engineers devised new 3D printing technique that uses ink made from genetically programmed living cells. Printed layer by layer, cells, and nutrients in hydrogel form three-dimensional, interactive structure. They light up in response to a variety of stimuli and turn into living devices.
Scientists Took a Giant Step Forward in Creating Artificial Life
Scientists managed to add X and Y nucleotide bases to Escherichia coli bacteria’s natural genetic alphabet and create entirely new, synthetic proteins. This is a major step toward creating artificial life but the goal of their study was actually to develop a novel protein-based drug treatments.
US Military Funding Brain Implants Testing in People
US military financed research groups are finding new ways of treating severe mental illnesses that resist current therapies. They have developed a new single closed-loop system to detect patterns associated with mood disorders and presented the first map of how mood is encoded inside the brain.
Scientists Found a Way to Rejuvenate Old Human Cells
Slowing, stopping, or even reversing aging has always been an ongoing topic in science. Now, scientists used the synthetic compound resveratrol, found naturally in chocolate and other consumables, to turn back the biological clock in senescent cells, causing them to start dividing again.
Scientists Successfully Folded a Protein Within a Protein
A research group from Singapore has developed a bacterial protein nanoparticle shell which folds and protects recombinant proteins within it. A fundamental breakthrough in the rapidly expanding field of synthetic biology, this technology can improve yields of proteins with biological activity by 100-fold and shield recombinant proteins from heat, harsh chemicals and proteolysis.
Large-Scale International Project Maps the World’s Microbes
The first reference database of the microbes colonizing the planet was constructed by more than 500 scientists. They contributed over 27,000 samples of microbiomes from diverse environments around the globe. The Earth Microbiome Project is a massive global research collaboration that resulted in ‘recapturing’ half of all known bacterial sequences.
Artificial Intelligence Can Generate a Draft of Your Scientific Manuscript
Do you ever get that feeling that you would like to have a magic spell to organize all your data?
And once it is organized, wouldn’t it be magnificent if there would be a software that could put together all relevant data from your projects, add some new references and present you with a manuscript draft you can build upon?
Single Base Editing Is Now Possible With CRISPR
Researchers have reached a new milestone in CRISPR technology by building an enzyme that can directly transform a DNA base pair from an A-T to a G-C. It will allow for more precise edits than ever before, opening doors for “DNA surgeries” and correction of mutations that cause human diseases.