Bioengineering

For the first time, Chinese scientists have used gene-editing techniques to make monkey brains more humanlike. The rhesus macaques got "smarter" as they were found to have superior memories to unaltered monkeys, according to a recently published research that has kicked off a fiery debate among ethicists about how far scientists should be able to take genetic experimentation.

A new study, published in Science Advances, has uncovered networks in the brain that are at work when we are conscious.

Plant biologists have discovered that when a leaf gets eaten, it warns other leaves by using some of the same signals as animals. This new work is starting to unravel a long-standing mystery about how different parts of a plant communicate with one another. A plant injured on one leaf by a nibbling insect can alert its other leaves to begin anticipatory defense responses.

Currently, the pharmaceutical industry makes billions of dollars from the compounds it produces in factories specially designed for the various chemical processes involved in doing so. These manufacturing processes are expensive, time-consuming and can be a source of pollution. However, lately, many drug types (particularly those based on or derived from natural antibodies) can be ‘grown’ in bacteria or bacteriophages engineered to express these proteins from their own DNA.

Diabetes is a condition associated with an acquired or inherent resistance to the effects of insulin. The resulting metabolic disruptions can have knock-on effects on various tissues types, most notably blood vessels. This gradually prevents them from ferrying oxygen and nutrients to the body, which can become particularly hard on internal organs and parts of the circulatory system that are far away from the heart.

Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that affects the plasma cells located in the bone marrow of the body. During an infection, when B cells or B lymphocytes mature, they become plasma cells, which, in turn, are responsible for the production of antibodies or immunoglobulins. Therefore, multiple myeloma is a condition when these plasma cells grow uncontrollably and become cancerous, also producing abnormal proteins like monoclonal immunoglobulin.

The USDA has defined food insecurity as the lack of consistent access to food to sustain a healthy living. An estimated 1 in 8 Americans, including about 12 million children, were found to be ‘food insecure,’ in 2017, according to a recent paper published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Not long ago, a scandal surrounding the claims made on the part of the genetic scientist, He Jiankui, made headlines. It involved public announcements of the successful editing of the genome in a pair of twin girls born as a result of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

It is clear that mistakes are somehow registered and processed in the brain. This is because errors result in behavior-based reactions such as moving to correct them and slowing down slightly while working so as not to risk making them again. As the links between such observations or perceptions are made in the brain, it follows that this organ controls the recognition and responses to errors in the people who make them.

It has been estimated that infertility, or the inability of a person to conceive by natural means or stay pregnant, affects as many as 15% of couples in the US at reproductive age. Also, 1 in 500 women has uterine infertility, which could be caused by reasons such as defects at birth, injury or infection.

Royal jelly is of potential interest to researchers in the areas of regenerative medicine and science. This compound is secreted by honey bees (Apis mellifera) and functions to transform ordinary bee larvae into queen bees. This process is most likely done by certain molecules in the jelly, which is known to act in an epigenetic manner.

He Jiankui, a geneticist affiliated with China’s Southern University of Science and Technology, rocked the scientific world with an outlandish claim of having edited the genes of IVF (in vitro fertilization)- generated embryos, last week. However, his story has not had the reception he may have hoped.