News by Subject Technology & Engineering

Necessity is the father of invention, but where is its mother? According to a new study published in Science, fewer women hold biomedical patents, leading to a reduced number of patented technologies designed to address problems affecting women.

MIT researchers have designed the first synthetic biology circuit that relies exclusively on protein-protein interactions. These circuits can be turned on within seconds, much faster than other synthetic biology circuits.

Researchers from Skoltech and the Mental Health Research Center have found 22 lipids in the blood plasma of people with schizophrenia that were associated with lower symptom improvement over time during treatment. The results show that different levels of symptom improvement are associated with different alterations in lipid levels. These can help track resistance to medication that affects over a third of patients and help further the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of disease manifestation and treatment response

The innovative material is eco-friendly, completely biological and non-toxic, and causes no harm to the body's tissues. The material is as strong as titanium and extremely flexible. The new development will allow for the charging of pacemakers using only the heartbeat, eliminating the need for batteries. The new material will make it possible to produce green energy activated by mechanical force that can be applied to other areas as well.

Muscles and the resident stem cells (satellite cells) responsible for muscle regeneration retain memory of their location in the body. This positional memory was found to be based on the expression pattern of the homeobox (Hox) gene cluster, which is responsible for shaping the body during fetal life. These findings are expected to provide clues to elucidate the pathogenesis of muscle diseases like muscular dystrophy, and help develop regenerative treatments based on positional memory.

The multi-centre study identified a microRNA-like small RNA encoded by SARS-CoV-2 in the serum of COVID-19 patients, which can be developed as a non-invasive biomarker for stratification of severe patients from mild/moderate ones and for identification of high-risk individuals before clinical manifestation of severe symptoms. This biomarker ensures proper allocation of patients to different levels of medical facilities and allows more effective control of the pandemic and relief of social economic burdens.

Scientists at UC San Francisco have shown that gene-edited cellular therapeutics can be used to successfully treat cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, potentially paving the way for developing less expensive cellular therapies to treat diseases for which there are currently few viable options.