Could the cure for cancer be found by a team of video gamers? Players of an online game were able to crowdsource an enzyme 18-times more reactive than a team of biochemists' … A team of scientists at the University of Washington have turned protein research into an addicting computer game. So addicting, in fact, that the amateur players have become more skilled at protein design than the scientists themselves.
The game, called Foldit, was released to the public in 2008. After solving a few tutorial puzzles, players are given a massive, complex protein that they're able to bend, twist, and shake. The players' goal is to use their toolbox to fold the protein chain to make it more stable. The most recent puzzles given to players involved an enzyme that university biochemists had created. While that particular enzyme doesn't have any practical real-world applications, the current puzzle being solved by gamers involves a protein designed to block the flu virus that caused the 1918 pandemic.
Scientific American via Gizmodo [Image source: Foldit] Bio-Assembling in 3-D with Magnetic Levitation. Growing tissues on two-dimensional petri dishes is so last century, say proponents of 3-D tissue engineering, who argue convincingly that the body isn’t flat, and the experimental platforms and treatments of the future shouldn’t be, either.
Now a new technology, pioneered by Houston-based n3D Biosciences, promises to float cells in a 3-D matrix made of nothing but magnetism. The secret ingredient is a proprietary mix of nanoparticles the company calls Nanoshuttle. The addition of these particles to a dish of living cells allows them to move in response to magnetic fields that can be varied in three dimensions and across time. According to an abstract on the work from the just-concluded meeting of the Tissue Engineering International & Regenerative Medicine Society, they’ve managed to tune this effect until it can create a “BioAssembler” that “leads to rapid formation of levitated 3-D cell cultures.”
Babies with three parents possible within three years. It came as the Department of Health ordered a public consultation on whether the technology should be moved from the lab to patients, which will be followed by a Commons debate on the ethics of the issue.
The Health Secretary has the power to lift the regulations and if both the scientific and political criteria are satisfied, the therapy could be trialled in humans within two to three years. The research is aimed at tackling diseases passed down through families via mutated mitochondria, structures which supply power to cells. Although 99.8 per cent of our DNA, including all our visible characteristics, is inherited evenly from our father and mother and stored in the nucleus of cells, a tiny fraction resides in the mitochondria and is passed down only by the mother. Faults in the mitochondria affect about one in 200 children in Britain each year, causing severe and incurable diseases such as muscular dystrophy or ataxia in about one in 6,500 people.
Death by Caffeine - StumbleUpon. We’ve used the very latest research to determine what’s appropriate for your body weight.
See more about your daily caffeine limits. Recommendations for caffeine levels are different for aged 18 and under. The calculator is intended for use only by adults over 18. See more about caffeine limits for children and teens. Sure are. On the result, click on the item for more detailed caffeine information. Yes. A lethal dose is based on the amount of the caffeine in your system at one time.