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Let’s face it: Nobody pursues a career in science for the joy of culturing cells. But this thankless and time-intensive task is the backbone of biological research. When it’s done extremely well, the results generated from experiments can open entirely new avenues of scientific pursuit, leading to the development of the best-performing cell therapy candidates and minimizing the need for testing animal models. But how often does our cell culture game live up to that potential?Indeed, one of the most important elements in culturing cells is often overlooked: assessing the influence of the environment on the residing cells and creating…

Pathology Images of Human Tissue Samples [Credit: The Cancer Genome Atlas] Artificial intelligence systems for diagnosing cancer from pathology slides often vary in accuracy according to a patient’s age, race and sex, researchers report. The findings, in Cell Reports Medicine, stress the need to check for bias in these data-driven algorithms to ensure they enhance diagnostic accuracy even when overall performance appears strong. The AI issues may have been due to underrepresented patients in training sets, differences in disease incidence, or subtle molecular variations between different demographic groups. “We found that because AI is so powerful, it can differentiate many…

Caenorhabditis elegans, colored scanning electron micrograph. Through a single mutation to their insulin signaling pathway, scientists can increase the lifespan of C. elegans worms by up to 10-fold. [Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library/Getty Images] The causal role of a gene is interrogated by experimentally perturbing its function, often using interventions that produce strong protein knockouts. However, biological systems possess complex quantitative dynamics, with strong knockdowns being less informative than more subtle, quantitative perturbations.  In a new study published in Nature Communications titled, “Engineering the auxin-inducible degron system for tunable in vivo control of organismal physiology,” researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation in…

New health platform converts labs, wearables and records into personalized plans designed to close the gap between insight and action. Health tech company Hundred Health has officially launched its integrated health platform and mobile app, positioning itself at the intersection of preventive care, clinical rigor and consumer health technology.  The company says it is the first to bring together a user’s complete health history, advanced lab testing, wearable data and lifestyle inputs into a structured, evidence-based 100-day action plan aimed at producing measurable health gains. The launch comes as investors and operators across health tech grapple with a persistent problem:…

Credit: Ruslanas Baranauskas / Getty images / Science photo library A Johns Hopkins Medicine–led research team have demonstrated that the use of chemotherapy drugs to fight cancer are associated with a significant reduction in CD4+ T cells carrying HIV provirus in a person living with HIV. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, indicated that HIV-infected CD4+ T cell clones may be susceptible to antiproliferative drugs and could potentially be a new strategy to significantly reduce the populations of immune cells carrying the HIV provirus. “CD4+ T cells with dormant HIV proviruses make it difficult to eradicate the…

This webinar will be hosted live and available on-demandTuesday, January 20th, 202611:00 AM – 12:30 PM ETTau tangles are a key pathological feature of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and increased phosphorylated Tau217 (pTau217) levels have proven to be a robust biomarker for this condition. Measuring brain-derived pTau from plasma samples with high sensitivity and specificity is shown to improve the accuracy of detecting AD and reduce the percentage of samples in the indeterminant range.In this webinar, brought to you by Alamar Biosciences, Jonathan Schott and Alex Forrest-Hay will discuss the latest ultra-sensitive assays for measuring brain-derived pTau217 and outline how they…

Scientists have investigated a little-known mechanism that fuels cellular senescence: mitochondrial RNA leaking into the cytoplasm. Targeting this mechanism showed promise in a mouse model of fatty liver [1]. The new target The increasing abundance of senescent cells with age has been linked to numerous diseases and is considered a hallmark of aging. Understanding why cells become senescent, and how we can either save them from this fate or mitigate the consequences, is an important target for geroscience. Cellular SenescenceAs your body ages, more of your cells become senescent. Senescent cells do not divide or support the tissues of which…

Credit: quantic69 / iStock / Getty Images Plus A large analysis of thousands of FDA-approved drugs carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig shows that a number of commonly used drugs can influence the efficacy of CRISPR-based gene editing therapies. In addition, the researchers showed two proteins, estrogen receptor 2 (ESR2) and aldehyde oxidase 1 (AOX1) play an important role in the DNA repair pathway and identified some drugs that could potentially be repurposed as cancer therapies for specific DNA repair defects seen in some cancers. “Every cell in the human body faces the threat…

According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death. Enrichment of regulatory T cells (T-regs) in solid cancers is generally associated with poor prognosis because these cells dampen the immune system’s ability to fight against a tumor. However, colorectal cancer stands out as an exception, as high density of T-regs in colorectal tumors is associated with improved survival. The mechanism for these improved outcomes has not been understood. In a new study published in Immunity titled, “Opposing functions of distinct regulatory T cell subsets in colorectal cancer,” researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) have identified two distinct…

Longevity experts say you don’t need supplements or expensive biohacks to age well. These seven simple habits are both free and powerful. We all want to live longer, but let’s be honest: adding years to your life means very little if those years are riddled with aches, fatigue and endless doctor visits. Longevity experts are now shifting the conversation from lifespan – the total years you live – to health span: how long you can live well, vibrant and fully engaged. And here’s the thing: you don’t need a garage full of high-tech gadgets or pricey injections to make a…