Monthly Archives: March 2015

Gene expression is really simple. Everyone should know it and feel comfortable thinking about it, said Nobel laureate Craig Mello 82, professor of molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, at a lecture Saturday morning in a packed Salomon 101.

Mellos keynote lecture, entitled RNA memories: Secrets of inheritance and immortality, kicked off Day of Biology, a day-long event commemorating life sciences at Brown. His lecture was followed by colloquia on a variety of topics in biology as well as current relevant University research. Mello provided an introduction to genetics before delving into his own research on RNA interference, which won him the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

He began by discussing germ lines, the cells used for sexual reproduction. Germ lines exist on a cosmic time scale. Every animal on this planet is related to each other were all related to each other.

The germ lines of humans and nematodes also known as roundworms have journeyed together on this planet for three million years, he said, adding that a wide range of animal biology can inform the study of human anatomy and physiology.

Mello discussed the relationship between DNA, RNA, ribosomes the part of the cell that creates proteins and gene expression. DNA encodes information that is transformed into messenger RNA, which brings the genetic information to the ribosomes, linking amino acids in ordered pairs to create an organisms proteins.

Mello said there are four building block nucleotides that combine to form codons, which code for the twenty amino acids the precursor molecules of proteins.

Four letters in the alphabet make 20 different words, which are the amino acids, Mello said, adding that RNA is really simple, but proteins are really diverse.

Mello also discussed his research on RNA interference, for which he and his collaborator Andrew Fire, professor of pathology and genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, shared their Nobel Prize. RNA interference can turn genes off, preventing their expression in the organism and its offspring.

We discovered that cells need a search engine, Mello said. Theyre dealing with information in much the same way that we all do on the (Internet). The precise chemical information allows a query to precisely identify a matching RNA cell.

By targeting messenger RNA, Mello and Fire learned how to enter search queries inside of cells. We can find genes and regulate them. This is really transforming what we can do in the laboratory.

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Craig Mello 82 gives biology keynote

Google Ventures' Bill Maris said he thinks humans can live to 500 years old This will be due to medical breakthroughs and a rise in biomechanics Google's director of engineering Ray Kurzweil previously said we'd be uploading our brains to machines by 2045 Google Ventureshas invested in genetics firms and cancer startups Tech giant also set up Calico - anti-ageing research and development labs Mr Maris said: 'We have the tools to achieve anything that you have the audacity to envision. I just hope to live long enough not to die' But professor Sir Colin Blakemore believes there's a limit on human life Neurobiologist believes 120 years might be an absolute to human lifespan This is because living for longer is so rarely exceeded that even with medical advances, it is unlikely this threshold will be raised

By Victoria Woollaston for MailOnline

Published: 10:20 EST, 9 March 2015 | Updated: 10:47 EST, 9 March 2015

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In an interview with Bloomberg, Google Ventures' president Bill Maris (pictured) said he thinks it's possible for humans to live to 500 years old

Google has invested in taxi firms, smart thermostats and even artificial intelligence but it is also setting its sights on immortality - or at least increasing our lives five-fold.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Google Ventures' president Bill Maris said he thinks it's possible to live to 500 years old.

And this will be helped by medical breakthroughs as well as a rise in biomechanics.

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Google Ventures' Bill Maris says humans could live for 500 YEARS

Testing breast cancer cells for how closely they resemble stem cells could identify women with the most aggressive disease, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that breast cancers with a similar pattern of gene activity to that of adult stem cells had a high chance of spreading to other parts of the body.

Assessing a breast cancer's pattern of activity in these stem cell genes has the potential to identify women who might need intensive treatment to prevent their disease recurring or spreading, the researchers said.

Adult stem cells are healthy cells within the body which have not specialised into any particular type, and so retain the ability to keep on dividing and replacing worn out cells in parts of the body such as the gut, skin or breast.

A research team from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, King's College London and Cardiff University's European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute identified a set of 323 genes whose activity was turned up to high levels in normal breast stem cells in mice.

The study is published today (Wednesday) in the journal Breast Cancer Research, and was funded by a range of organisations including the Medical Research Council, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Cancer Research UK.

The scientists cross-referenced their panel of normal stem cell genes against the genetic profiles of tumours from 579 women with triple-negative breast cancer - a form of the disease which is particularly difficult to treat.

They split the tumour samples into two categories based on their 'score' for the activity of the stem cell genes.

Women with triple-negative tumours in the highest-scoring category were much less likely to stay free of breast cancer than those with the lowest-scoring tumours. Women with tumours from the higher-scoring group had around a 10 per cent chance of avoiding relapse after 10 years, while women from the low-scoring group had a chance of around 60 per cent of avoiding relapse.

The results show that the cells of aggressive triple-negative breast cancers are particularly 'stem-cell-like', taking on properties of stem cells such as self-renewal to help them grow and spread. They also suggest that some of the 323 genes could be promising targets for potential cancer drugs.

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'Stem cell' test could identify most aggressive breast cancers

Australian Queen Garnet has five to 10 times more anthocyanins than a normal plum Fruit was accidentally created during a breeding programme Marks & Spencer currently the only UK supermarket to stock the fruit

By Anucyia Victor for MailOnline

Published: 09:23 EST, 5 March 2015 | Updated: 09:23 EST, 5 March 2015

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A plum, which was 'accidentally created' , has been touted as the next superfood to rival the acai berry.

TheAustralian Queen Garnet contains some of the highest levels of antioxidants ever found in a fruit and has just gone on sale in the UK.

According to studies the fruit has five to ten times more anthocyanins than a normal plum.

The Australian Queen Garnet has five to ten times more of the antioxidantanthocyanins than a normal plum

Link:
Jammy tasting new plum variety hailed as the next big health trend

Until the Scientific Revolution most human cultures did not believe in progress. They thought the golden age was in the past, and that the world was stagnant, if not deteriorating. Strict adherence to the wisdom of the ages might perhaps bring back the good old times, and human ingenuity might conceivably improve this or that facet of daily life. However, it was considered impossible for human know-how to overcome the worlds fundamental problems. If even Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha and Confucius who knew everything there is to know were unable to abolish famine, disease, poverty and war from the world, how could we expect to do so?

Many faiths believed that some day a messiah would appear and end all wars, famines and even death itself. But the notion that humankind could do so by discovering new knowledge and inventing new tools was worse than ludicrous it was hubris. The story of the Tower of Babel, the story of Icarus, the story of the Golem and countless other myths taught people that any attempt to go beyond human limitations would inevitably lead to disappointment and disaster.

When modern culture admitted that there were many important things that it still did not know, and when that admission of ignorance was married to the idea that scientific discoveries could give us new powers, people began suspecting that real progress might be possible after all. As science began to solve one unsolvable problem after another, many became convinced that humankind could overcome any and every problem by acquiring and applying new knowledge. Poverty, sickness, wars, famines, old age and death itself were not the inevitable fate of humankind. They were simply the fruits of our ignorance.

A famous example is lightning. Many cultures believed that lightning was the hammer of an angry god, used to punish sinners. In the middle of the eighteenth century, in one of the most celebrated experiments in scientific history, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a lightning storm to test the hypothesis that lightning is simply an electric current. Franklins empirical observations, coupled with his knowledge about the qualities of electrical energy, enabled him to invent the lightning rod and disarm the gods.

Poverty is another case in point. Many cultures have viewed poverty as an inescapable part of this imperfect world. According to the New Testament, shortly before the crucifixion a woman anointed Christ with precious oil worth 300 denarii. Jesus disciples scolded the woman for wasting such a huge sum of money instead of giving it to the poor, but Jesus defended her, saying that The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me (Mark 14:7). Today, fewer and fewer people, including fewer and fewer Christians, agree with Jesus on this matter. Poverty is increasingly seen as a technical problem amenable to intervention. Its common wisdom that policies based on the latest findings in agronomy, economics, medicine and sociology can eliminate poverty.

And indeed, many parts of the world have already been freed from the worst forms of deprivation. Throughout history, societies have suffered from two kinds of poverty: social poverty, which withholds from some people the opportunities available to others; and biological poverty, which puts the very lives of individuals at risk due to lack of food and shelter. Perhaps social poverty can never be eradicated, but in many countries around the world biological poverty is a thing of the past.

Until recently, most people hovered very close to the biological poverty line, below which a person lacks enough calories to sustain life for long. Even small miscalculations or misfortunes could easily push people below that line, into starvation. Natural disasters and man-made calamities often plunged entire populations over the abyss, causing the death of millions. Today most of the worlds people have a safety net stretched below them. Individuals are protected from personal misfortune by insurance, state-sponsored social security and a plethora of local and international NGOs. When calamity strikes an entire region, worldwide relief efforts are usually successful in preventing the worst. People still suffer from numerous degradations, humiliations and poverty-related illnesses, but in most countries nobody is starving to death. In fact, in many societies more people are in danger of dying from obesity than from starvation.

The Gilgamesh Project

Of all mankinds ostensibly insoluble problems, one has remained the most vexing, interesting and important: the problem of death itself. Before the late modern era, most religions and ideologies took it for granted that death was our inevitable fate. Moreover, most faiths turned death into the main source of meaning in life. Try to imagine Islam, Christianity or the ancient Egyptian religion in a world without death. These creeds taught people that they must come to terms with death and pin their hopes on the afterlife, rather than seek to overcome death and live for ever here on earth. The best minds were busy giving meaning to death, not trying to escape it.

That is the theme of the most ancient myth to come down to us the Gilgamesh myth of ancient Sumer. Its hero is the strongest and most capable man in the world, King Gilgamesh of Uruk, who could defeat anyone in battle. One day, Gilgameshs best friend, Enkidu, died. Gilgamesh sat by the body and observed it for many days, until he saw a worm dropping out of his friends nostril. At that moment Gilgamesh was gripped by a terrible horror, and he resolved that he himself would never die. He would somehow find a way to defeat death. Gilgamesh then undertook a journey to the end of the universe, killing lions, battling scorpion-men and finding his way into the underworld. There he shattered the mysterious stone things of Urshanabi, the ferryman of the river of the dead, and found Utnapishtim, the last survivor of the primordial flood. Yet Gilgamesh failed in his quest. He returned home empty-handed, as mortal as ever, but with one new piece of wisdom. When the gods created man, Gilgamesh had learned, they set death as mans inevitable destiny, and man must learn to live with it.

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The myth of pure science: Its all about political, economic, religious interests