Author: Lala Trute

Genetic Engineering Algae to Save our Coral Reefs

Genetic Engineering Algae to Save our Coral Reefs

Posted by | Jul 20, 2017 | |

Coral reefs are our oceans breathtakingly beautiful forests which support a multitude of sea life and act as a natural shielding for coastal regions. Higher sea temperatures from global warming force corals to discharge the symbiotic algae (called Symbiodinium) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. These colorful “rainforests of the sea” can live through a bleaching event, but they are under more strain and are subject to high rates of die-off. But pollution from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to ocean acidification which limits corals ability to grow and repair. So ocean acidification on...

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New Immunotherapy Approach Uses Engineered Macrophages to Attack Solid Tumors

New Immunotherapy Approach Uses Engineered Macrophages to Attack Solid Tumors

Posted by | Jul 20, 2017 | |

Macrophages are a type of white blood cell that are the “first responders” of the immune system, attacking and digesting cellular debris and foreign microbes. In theory, macrophages should also destroy cancerous cells, but in reality cancer cells give off the same chemical signals as healthy ones, essentially going undetected by our “first responders” of the immune system. Sometimes the immune system does detect cancer cells, but the response is not strong enough. In response, researchers have used strategies to boost the immune system via immunotherapy treatments to help the immune system detect cancer cells and bolster its response...

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Movie Encoded in and Then Replayed From DNA Using “Molecular Recorder”

Movie Encoded in and Then Replayed From DNA Using “Molecular Recorder”

Posted by | Jul 12, 2017 | |

Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have succeeded in a study that could have remarkable implications of our understanding and perhaps re-scripting of how the human body behaves.  The study, which will appear July 12, 2017, in the journal Nature, show for the first time that DNA in living cells can be used to encode not just genetic knowledge, but any random sequential data into a genome. Neuroscientist Seth Shipman, Ph.D. , a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, Harvard’s Drs. George Church, Jeffrey Macklis and Jeff Nivalapreviously, first demonstrated that they could use CRISPR to store sequences of...

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Making Telescoping Gadgets That Twist and Curve

Making Telescoping Gadgets That Twist and Curve

Posted by | Jul 11, 2017 | |

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed new design software that allows users to turn any 3D shape into a collapsible telescoping structure.  The team led by Carnegie Mellon Professors Stelian Coros and Keenan Crane and PhD student Christopher Yu, found inspiration to pursue the thought of automating the design of telescoping structures, in an interesting nerd like way.  While attending a recent maker fair, they came across a set of retractable X-Men Wolverine, toy claws.  Inspired by the retraction/telescoping abilities of the claws’ curved shape, they began experimenting with a wide variety of shapes that could come out of...

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