Author Archives: ev1

How Is the Atomic Number of a Nucleus Changed by Gamma Decay? : Chemistry Concepts – Video

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How Is the Atomic Number of a Nucleus Changed by Gamma Decay? : Chemistry Concepts
Subscribe Now: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=ehoweducation Watch More: http://www.youtube.com/ehoweducation The atomic number of a nucl...

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How Is the Atomic Number of a Nucleus Changed by Gamma Decay? : Chemistry Concepts - Video

Jonathan Kimmelman: Anatomy of Clinical Translation: Ethics, Epistemology, and Policy – Video

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Jonathan Kimmelman: Anatomy of Clinical Translation: Ethics, Epistemology, and Policy
The clinical translation process is widely viewed as plagued by inefficiency, error, and delay. However, such views- and the research reforms aimed at correc...

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Jonathan Kimmelman: Anatomy of Clinical Translation: Ethics, Epistemology, and Policy - Video

Uploading Consciousness & Digital Immortality | Interview with Theoretical Physicist Michio Kaku – Video

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Uploading Consciousness Digital Immortality | Interview with Theoretical Physicist Michio Kaku
Breaking the Set #39;s Manuel Rapalo speaks with theoretical physicist, Michio Kaku, about his latest book #39;The Future of the Mind #39; discussing a the how realisti...

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Uploading Consciousness & Digital Immortality | Interview with Theoretical Physicist Michio Kaku - Video

Erasing a genetic mutation

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Mar-2014

Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Using a new gene-editing system based on bacterial proteins, MIT researchers have cured mice of a rare liver disorder caused by a single genetic mutation.

The findings, described in the March 30 issue of Nature Biotechnology, offer the first evidence that this gene-editing technique, known as CRISPR, can reverse disease symptoms in living animals. CRISPR, which offers an easy way to snip out mutated DNA and replace it with the correct sequence, holds potential for treating many genetic disorders, according to the research team.

"What's exciting about this approach is that we can actually correct a defective gene in a living adult animal," says Daniel Anderson, the Samuel A. Goldblith Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and the senior author of the paper.

The recently developed CRISPR system relies on cellular machinery that bacteria use to defend themselves from viral infection. Researchers have copied this cellular system to create gene-editing complexes that include a DNA-cutting enzyme called Cas9 bound to a short RNA guide strand that is programmed to bind to a specific genome sequence, telling Cas9 where to make its cut.

At the same time, the researchers also deliver a DNA template strand. When the cell repairs the damage produced by Cas9, it copies from the template, introducing new genetic material into the genome. Scientists envision that this kind of genome editing could one day help treat diseases such as hemophilia, Huntington's disease, and others that are caused by single mutations.

Scientists have developed other gene-editing systems based on DNA-slicing enzymes, also known as nucleases, but those complexes can be expensive and difficult to assemble.

"The CRISPR system is very easy to configure and customize," says Anderson, who is also a member of MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. He adds that other systems "can potentially be used in a similar way to the CRISPR system, but with those it is much harder to make a nuclease that's specific to your target of interest."

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Erasing a genetic mutation

U.S. House bill threatens social- science funding

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Research in the social, behavioral and economic sciences could suffer a 22 percent cut in federal funding if recently proposed legislation is voted into law.

Earlier this month, a House of Representatives committee advanced legislation that if passed will keep the National Science Foundation funding approximately the same but cut deeply into the pool of funding for humanities- and-social-science research. The current $256 million funding level would be reduced to $200 million.

Tom Birkland, associate dean for research and engagement in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said the proposed legislation would be a savage cut, and that CHASS researchers would only receive about 60 percent of the funding they received in 2000.

It really beats it up, Birkland said.

Currently, social, behavioral and economic research funding composes a small 3.5 percent of the NSFs $7.28 billion budget, and Birkland said the proposed changes would save the agency very little money.

The problem is that sometimes, Congress doesnt see the point in social-science research, Birkland said.

Last year, the NSF awarded a group of researchers to study how Native American communities used legal strategies to effect policy change, Birkland said.

Congress looks at that and thinks, What is the value? Birkland said. They think, Do we want to encourage that?

But some things are worth knowing simply for the sake of knowing them, Birkland said.

Astronomy has little practical benefit, Birkland said. Congress rejects certain research on the grounds of fiscal responsibility, or other ideological grounds. Thats a legitimate conversation to have in a democracy, but why cant we pursue the science of sociology as well as biology and astronomy?

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U.S. House bill threatens social- science funding