This story was originally published on ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. ProPublica — Leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered staff this week not to release their experts’ assessment that found the risk of catching measles is high in [...]
A recent study published in Nature Communications presents a new microrobotic platform designed to improve the precision and versatility of nanoparticle manipulation using light. Led by Jin Qin and colleagues, the research addresses limitations in traditional optical methods and introduces a microrobot powered by plasmonic nanomotors. Background: Limitations of Traditional Techniques Manipulating nanoparticles at the nanoscale is a [...]
Researchers discovered peptides that permanently block a key cancer protein once thought untreatable, using a new screening method to test their effectiveness inside cells. For the first time, scientists have identified promising drug candidates that irreversibly bind to a notoriously “undruggable” cancer protein, effectively and permanently disabling it. Transcription factors, proteins that act as [...]
Chinese scientists claim that some AI models can replicate themselves and protect against shutdown. Has artificial intelligence crossed the so-called red line? Chinese researchers have published two reports on arXiv claiming that some artificial intelligence models can self-clone. The theory is garnering interest; however, this controversial discovery should be approached with caution, as the articles have [...]
Nitisinone, a drug for rare diseases, kills mosquitoes when present in human blood and may become a new tool to fight malaria, offering longer-lasting, environmentally safer effects than ivermectin. Controlling mosquito populations is a key strategy in the fight against malaria. Currently, several approaches are used to reduce mosquito numbers and limit malaria transmission. [...]
What if you could take a picture of every gene inside a living organism—not with light, but with DNA itself? Scientists at the University of Chicago have pioneered a revolutionary imaging technique called volumetric DNA microscopy. It builds intricate 3D maps of genetic material by tagging and tracking molecular interactions, creating never-before-seen views inside organisms like zebrafish embryos. [...]
Scientists at EMBL have captured how human chromosomes fold into their signature rod shape during cell division, using a groundbreaking method called LoopTrace. By observing overlapping DNA loops forming in high resolution, they revealed that large loops form first, followed by nested smaller loops, all repelling each other into compact structures. This new insight not only [...]
H5N1 influenza is evolving rapidly, weakening the effectiveness of existing antibodies and increasing its potential threat to humans. Scientists at UNC Charlotte and MIT used high-performance computational modeling to analyze thousands of viral protein-antibody interactions, revealing a decline in immune response effectiveness. Their research suggests that H5N1 mutations may soon enable human-to-human transmission, raising pandemic concerns. [...]
The method triggers immune responses that inhibit melanoma, triple-negative breast cancer, lung carcinoma, and ovarian cancer. Cancer treatment vaccines have been in development since 2010, when the first was approved for prostate cancer, followed by another in 2015 for melanoma. While many therapeutic (rather than preventive) cancer vaccines have been researched since then, none [...]
Scientists have uncovered a critical piece of the puzzle in autoimmune diseases: a protein that helps release immune response molecules. By studying an ultra-rare condition, researchers identified ArfGAP2 as a key player in immune overactivity. Blocking it in mice prevented severe tissue damage, opening the door to potential treatments for a range of immune-related [...]
