Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists have discovered yet another amazing aspect of the weird and wonderful behavior of water—this time when subjected to nanoscale confinement at sub-zero temperatures.

The finding that a crystalline substance can readily give up water at temperatures as low as −70 °C, published in the journal Nature on April 12, has major implications for the development of materials designed to extract water from the atmosphere.

Continue reading “Scientists identify new benchmark for freezing point of water at —70 C” »

Promising results in clinical studies have been demonstrated by the utilization of electrothermal agents (ETAs) in cancer therapy. However, a difficulty arises from the balance between facilitating the degradation of ETAs, and at the same time, increasing the electrothermal performance/stability required for highly efficient treatment. In this study, we controlled the thermal signature of the MoS2 by harnessing MoS2 nanostructures with M13 phage (MNM) via the structural assembling (hydrophobic interaction) phenomena and developed a combined PANC-1 cancer cell–MNM alternating current (AC)-stimulus framework for cancer cell ablation and electrothermal therapy. A percentage decrease in the cell viability of ~23% was achieved, as well as a degradation time of 2 weeks; a stimulus length of 100 μs was also achieved.

The remarkable physicochemical properties of the natural nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, define modern biology at the molecular level and are widely believed to have been central to life’s origins. However, their ability to form repositories of information as well as functional structures such as ligands (aptamers) and catalysts (ribozymes/DNAzymes) is not unique. A range of nonnatural alternatives, collectively termed xeno nucleic acids (XNAs), are also capable of supporting genetic information storage and propagation as well as evolution. This gives rise to a new field of “synthetic genetics,” which seeks to expand the nucleic acid chemical toolbox for applications in both biotechnology and molecular medicine. In this review, we outline XNA polymerase and reverse transcriptase engineering as a key enabling technology and summarize the application of “synthetic genetics” to the development of aptamers, enzymes, and nanostructures.

Copyright © 2019 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved.

The circadian system of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7,942 relies on a three-protein nanomachine (KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC) that undergoes an oscillatory phosphorylation cycle with a period of ~24 h. This core oscillator can be reconstituted in vitro and is used to study the molecular mechanisms of circadian timekeeping and entrainment. Previous studies showed that two key metabolic changes that occur in cells during the transition into darkness, changes in the ATP/ADP ratio and redox status of the quinone pool, are cues that entrain the circadian clock. By changing the ATP/ADP ratio or adding oxidized quinone, one can shift the phase of the phosphorylation cycle of the core oscillator in vitro. However, the in vitro oscillator cannot explain gene expression patterns because the simple mixture lacks the output components that connect the clock to genes. Recently, a high-throughput in vitro system termed the in vitro clock (IVC) that contains both the core oscillator and the output components was developed. Here, we used IVC reactions and performed massively parallel experiments to study entrainment, the synchronization of the clock with the environment, in the presence of output components. Our results indicate that the IVC better explains the in vivo clock-resetting phenotypes of wild-type and mutant strains and that the output components are deeply engaged with the core oscillator, affecting the way input signals entrain the core pacemaker. These findings blur the line between input and output pathways and support our previous demonstration that key output components are fundamental parts of the clock.

An analysis and improvement of the spectral properties of nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond nanostructures paves the way for efficient entanglement generation necessary for many quantum information applications.

^c Department of Chemical Biology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361,005, China.

The concept of xeno-nucleic acids (XNAs) was first proposed in 2009 in a theoretical paper, referring to additional types of nucleic acids, whose sugar moieties would differ from those in DNA and RNA. However, with the rising popularity of XNAs, the definition of XNAs has been extended to unnatural nucleic acids with chemically modified sugar, nucleobase, or phosphate moieties that are distinct from those found in DNA and RNA. The discovery and engineering of both polymerases and reverse transcriptases to synthesize, replicate and evolve a diverse range of XNAs has attracted significant attention and has enabled the discovery of XNA ligands (aptamers) and XNA catalysts (XNAzymes) as well as the synthesis of XNA nanostructures with potential as novel therapeutics. The field of XNAs continues to grow rapidly towards realizing the potential of XNAs in biotechnology and molecular medicine. This themed issue unites a collection of articles attesting to the rapid progress in the field.

One of the key advantages of XNAs is their generally enhanced resistance to nuclease degradation. This biostability, the affinity and specificity towards a target, and the general lack of immunogenicity of modified nucleic acids are critical for their potential application as therapeutics. Modified sugar moieties such as 2′-modified analogs, conformationally locked analogs, and threose-replaced analogs in particular contribute to the increased biological stability of XNAs against enzymatic degradation. Replacing the phosphodiester linkages with charge-neutral backbones including peptide-like backbones and triazole-linked backbones offers further opportunities to tune the stability, conformation and physicochemical properties of XNAs and enhance the affinity to their targets.

Researchers have designed a 3D-patterned, graphene.

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon in the form of a single layer of atoms in a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice in which one atom forms each vertex. It is the basic structural element of other allotropes of carbon, including graphite, charcoal, carbon nanotubes, and fullerenes. In proportion to its thickness, it is about 100 times stronger than the strongest steel.

In the pearly light of the pocket nucleo-bulb…’ — Isaac Asimov, 1951.

Cheap Paper-Based Sensors Let You Snoop For Pesticides ‘…the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers.’ — Frank Herbert, 1965.

Modern App Provides Video Technology From Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’ ‘A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.’ — Ray Bradbury, 1953.

Engineers at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Medical School have designed a new type of nanoparticle that can be administered to the lungs, where it can deliver messenger RNA encoding useful proteins.

With further development, these particles could offer an inhalable treatment for cystic fibrosis and other diseases of the lung, the researchers say.

“This is the first demonstration of highly efficient delivery of RNA to the lungs in mice. We are hopeful that it can be used to treat or repair a range of genetic diseases, including cystic fibrosis,” says Daniel Anderson, a professor in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).