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Credit: luismmolina / iStock / Getty Images Plus Researchers at ChristianaCare Gene Editing Institute have leveraged CRISPR gene editing to overcome chemotherapy resistance in lung cancer by disabling a tumor-specific mutation in the NRF2 gene, according to a recent study published in Molecular Therapy Oncology. “NRF2 activation in cancer promotes resistance to chemotherapy and radiation, often driven by mutations in NRF2, like R34G, which is common in lung squamous cell carcinoma,” said the study’s lead author Kelly Banas, PhD, associate director of research at the Gene Editing Institute. “This mutation creates a unique CRISPR/Cas target site, enabling selective editing of…

In a women’s health study, researchers have linked a higher consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to an increased risk of early-onset colorectal cancer precursors. Participants on a diet rich in these foods had a higher likelihood of developing adenomas before the age of 50. The cohort study examined the dietary habits of 29,105 female nurses under 50 who had undergone a lower endoscopy. Compared to women with the lowest UPF intake, those who consumed the highest amount of UFPs were found to have a 45% increased likelihood of developing conventional colorectal adenomas, a type of polyp that can become cancerous.Experts…

Amazon’s Black Friday sale starts today, with steep discounts on top brands, including Ninja, Le Creuset and Brooks.  Read on to find 56 kitchen and exercise essentials that are up to $500 off.   Prices start at just $4.  Thanksgiving is still a week away, but Amazon’s Black Friday sale officially starts today. To celebrate, the retailer marked down cookware, small kitchen appliances, walking shoes and more by up to $500.  Since there are thousands of discounts to sort through—an understandably overwhelming amount—we rounded up 56 that are worth grabbing now. We suggest clicking “add to cart” on anything that strikes…

Vaping overtakes smoking in Britain for first timePeople who use e-cigarettes (vapes) now outnumber smokers in Britain for the first time, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show. In 2024 Britain had 5.4 million vapers aged over 16 and 4.9 million smokers, showed data from the ONS’s opinions and lifestyle survey. The percentage of adults currently smoking cigarettes decreased from 10.5% in 2023 to 9.1% in 2024, the lowest since records began in 1974. In contrast, the percentage who vaped rose from 9.8% in 2023 to 10% in 2024. (Full story doi:10.1136/bmj.r2345)

Evo 1.5 pretrainingEvo 1.5 was generated by extending the pretraining of the Evo 1 model, originally trained at a sequence context of 8,192 tokens with an initial learning rate of 0.003 after a warmup of 1,200 iterations; a cosine decay schedule with a maximum decay iteration of 120,000 and a minimum learning rate of 0.0003. Training used a global batch size of 4,194,304 tokens and 75,000 iterations, processing a total of 315 billion tokens. Other details on hyperparameters related to the model architecture and optimizer can be found in ref. 1. Pretraining of the model, including all model states, optimizer states, data loading schedule…

The surging value of firms such as NVIDIA has fuelled concerns about an AI stock market bubble.Credit: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via GettyAfter years of hype and ballooning investment, the boom in artificial intelligence technology is beginning to show signs of strain. Many financial analysts now agree that there is an ‘AI bubble’, and some speculate it could finally burst in the next few months.In economic terms, the rise of AI is unlike any other tech boom in history — there is now 17 times more investment in AI than in Internet companies before the dot-com crash of the early 2000s. And,…

Credit: DrAfter123 / DigitalVision Vectors / Getty Images A new paper from the laboratory of David Liu, PhD, at the Broad Institute describes a genome-editing strategy that could result in a one-time treatment for multiple unrelated genetic diseases. The new technique dubbed prime editing-mediated readthrough of premature termination codons or PERT is detailed in Nature in a new paper titled “Prime editing-installed suppressor tRNAs for disease-agnostic genome editing.” The work is spearheaded by co-first authors Sarah Pierce, PhD, and Steven Erwood, PhD, both of whom are postdoctoral associates in the Liu lab.   According to its developers, PERT is designed to maximize the potential of gene editing by using a single agent to target multiple disorders. Specifically,…

Is sooji healthy? This common household ingredient, known as suji or rava in India and semolina globally, is a staple in diverse cuisines—from savory upma to creamy Italian pasta. For decades, it has been lauded for its versatility and quick cooking time. However, confusion persists regarding its nutritional status: is it a highly refined food to be avoided, or a nutrient-dense grain deserving of its popularity? This comprehensive guide will serve as your ultimate resource, providing an in-depth, research-backed look at the nutritional value per 100g, its true health benefits, potential side effects, suitability for weight loss and diabetic management,…

A combination of factors including capsaicin receptor sensitivity, personality, and cultural background drives a person’s taste in spicy food.Image credit:© iStock.com, sankaiAt the dinner table, digging into a spicy curry can send someone lunging for a glass of water or milk, their tongue seemingly on fire, lips tingling, and forehead dotted with sweat beads. At the same time, the person sitting next to them may gobble the same curry happily, eyes dry and unflinching. Why some people seem to like spicy-tasting foods while others do not is a question that has intrigued scientists for decades. Researchers obtained some clues about…

Credit: Simon Deltadahl Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model named CytoDiffusion that can analyze blood cells in a patient sample with more accuracy and reliability than trained clinicians. Results published today in Nature Machine Intelligence show this technology has the potential to improve the diagnosis of a wide range of conditions affecting blood cells while reducing time doctors spent in routine tasks. From anemia to cancer, a wide range of blood disorders can be diagnosed using a blood smear test, where a hematology specialist observes the size, shape and number of blood cells…