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Stanford Medicine researchers develop RNA blood test to detect cancers, other clues

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  Stanford Medicine researchers have developed a blood test capable of detecting cancers, the ways cancer resists treatments and tissue injury caused by non-cancerous conditions. The new test analyzes RNA molecules in the bloodstream. This type of RNA is called cell-free RNA because the tiny molecules no longer inhabit a cell. There are always fragments of both DNA and RNA floating in blood — byproducts of natural cell death from all types of tissues and organs throughout the body, including cancerous tumors. The researchers spent more than six years developing novel methods to target messenger RNA in blood and then used it to identify the presence of cancers at different stages, to track resistance to cancer treatment, and to monitor severity of injury to healthy tissue. Just as archeologists can learn about ancient societies by studying the garbage they left behind, we can learn a lot about what is going on in the cells of a patient’s body based on the degraded RNA molecules that...
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How synthetic biology helps extract more rubber from dandelions, produces fungal fashion

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  ushrooms may be trending in haute cuisine, but wearing them could be the next hot thing. It’s a fashion future  Vayu Hill-Maini , PhD, assistant professor of bioengineering, and  Xiaojing Gao , PhD, assistant professor of chemical engineering, are working to bring about with synthetic biology, an emerging field that combines principles from biology, engineering and chemistry to redesign or create organisms for useful purposes. Think mRNA vaccines, biofuels and cell-cultured meat. Hill-Maini and Gao are conducting research on the production of aesthetically pleasing and environmentally sound textiles made of fungi. “Hopefully, in two years, I’ll be wearing a cool fungal suit,” Hill-Maini said May 7 at Stanford’s second Synthetic Biology for Sustainability Symposium in Paul Brest Hall.   “Don’t hold me to it, but that’s kind of the vision.” Supported by the Stanford School of Medicine, the School of Engineering and the Doerr School of Sustainability, the symposium fe...
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Gene expression maps explain why diseases often occur together

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  Genomic and transcriptional data has greatly improved the understanding of multiple aspects of human physiology. A new paper in  PNAS  reports on molecular-level associations of co-occurring diseases identified by their RNA expression. The investigators went a step further by categorizing participants by their gene expression patterns. This revealed more disease groupings, both known and potential, offering possibilities for the systematic discovery of relationships between diseases at the molecular level. This could enhance treatment approaches to such comorbidities. Comorbidity refers to the occurrence of two or more disease conditions in the same patient or set of patients. Specific illnesses confer a higher risk for certain other conditions. These patterns of co-occurrence help predict the course and prognosis of the diseases, as well as the odds of developing specific secondary illnesses as a result of the index condition. Shared disease-related genes may explain t...
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Cracking the Code on ‘Super Kelp’ Genetics

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  It provides life-giving oxygen and is used in everyday consumer products like toothpaste. Seaweed. Also known as kelp, the fast-growing marine algae provides structure for biodiverse ocean life and has increasingly found its way into  hundreds  of food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic items. Experts say it could also be a solution to climate change due to its ability to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, slowing  ocean warming .  We are starting to see this as a climate solution now because there are major advantages to things like kelp and other seaweeds.” But kelp and other seaweeds are threatened by ocean warming and pollutants. A marine heatwave in the last decade wiped out more than  90% of kelp forests  along the Northern California coast.  A strain of “super kelp” first  transplanted  off Newport Beach in the 1970s could hold the key to preserving California’s vanishing kelp forests in its genes...
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Atlas Blue Butterfly Has 229 Pairs of Chromosomes, Scientists Find

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  The group to which the Atlas blue butterfly belongs contains many closely related species that evolved over a short period of time. “Genomes hold the key to how a creature came to be, but also, where it might go in the future,” said Professor Mark Blaxter, a researcher at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. “To be able to tell the story of our planet, we must have the story of each species and see where they overlap and interact with each other.” “It also allows us to apply learnings from one genome to another.” “For example, rearranging chromosomes is also seen in human cancer cells, and understanding this process in the Atlas blue butterfly could help find ways to limit or stop this in cancer cells in the future.” In the study, Professor Blaxter and colleagues found that the chromosomes had been spilt up at points where the DNA is less tightly wound. This means there was roughly the same amount of genetic information, but it was packaged in smaller sections. All of the chromosomes, ...
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Stem cell models reveal how epilepsy genes disrupt different brain regions

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  For families of children with severe epilepsy, controlling seizures is often just the beginning of their challenges. Even in cases where powerful medications can reduce seizures, many children continue to face difficulties with learning, behavior and sleep that can be just as disruptive to daily life. New stem cell-based research from UCLA,  published  in  Cell Reports , provides an early step toward understanding why  current treatments  often fall short, pointing to the distinct effects that single disease-causing gene variants can have across different regions of the brain. The study focuses on developmental and epileptic encephalopathy type 13, or DEE-13, a rare childhood condition caused by certain variants in the SCN8A gene. SCN8A encodes Nav1.6, a sodium channel critical for generating and transmitting electrical signals in neurons. Children with DEE-13 experience frequent seizures as well as  developmental delays , intellectual disability, an...
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