Tag Archives: innovation

Physiology

Leadership Transitions | Office of the Provost | University of Pittsburgh – Office of the Provost

August 4, 2022

Dean James R. Martin, the U.S. Steel Dean of the Swanson School of Engineering, has shared with me his decision to accept a new role as Vice Chancellor for STEM Research and Innovation in the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research. In his new role, Dr. Martin will work to help integrate our STEM programs and leverage their collaborative potential and build pipelines to further diversify the student body and faculty in STEM. Senior Vice Chancellor Rutenbar and I are grateful for his willingness to take on this important task.

Under Dr. Martins leadership, the Swanson School has advanced several strategic areas, including research funding, PhD enrollments, faculty and student diversity, and government and industry partnerships. Research expenditures within the school increased by over 33% and PhD students enrollments by over 20%, thanks to an added focus on larger, multidisciplinary proposals and restructuring of the business, finance, and research offices. Undergraduate diversity consistently increased for underrepresented minorities, with first year female cohorts nearing 40 percent and first-generation students increasing from 5 to 15 percent. I thank Dr. Martin for his contributions to the School and look forward to working with him in his new role.

I am grateful that Dr. Sanjeev Shroff, Distinguished Professor of and the Gerald E. McGinnis Chair in Bioengineering and the Chair of the Department of Bioengineering, has agreed to serve as Interim Dean of the school effective immediately. Sanjeev came to Pitt from the University of Chicago in 2000 and is deeply respected by his colleagues at Pitt and in the broader community, as well as by his peers in the field of bioengineering.

Sanjeev is a distinguished scholar in cardiovascular physiology and engineering, with special emphasis on cardiac mechano-energetics and cardiovascular structure-function relationships under normal and pathological conditions. His research has been supported by grants from the American Heart Association, National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. He is also an elected Fellow of the American Physiological Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering.

I believe the combination of Sanjeevs leadership experience, dedication to and knowledge of Pitt and of the Swanson School, and professional expertise makes him the ideal choice for this interim role.

My sincere thanks to you for your continued dedication to the school and to the University of Pittsburgh.

Best,

Ann E. CuddProvost and Senior Vice Chancellor

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Leadership Transitions | Office of the Provost | University of Pittsburgh - Office of the Provost

Biochemistry

Researchers use rapid antibody test to gauge immune response to SARS-CoV-2 variants – University of Toronto

COVID-19 infections are once again on the rise as our immune systems struggle to combat new variants.

Thats according to a University of Toronto study that foundthe antibodies generated by people who were vaccinated and/or recovered from COVID-19prior to 2022 failed to neutralize the variants circulating today.

Furthermore, the researchers expect that the antibody test they developed to measure immunity in the studys participants will become a valuable tool for deciding who needs a booster and when,helping to save lives and avoid future lockdowns.

The truth is we dont yet know how frequent our shots should be to prevent infection, saidIgor Stagljar, a professor of biochemistry and molecular geneticsat theDonnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research andat the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. To answer these questions, we need rapid, inexpensive and quantitative tests that specifically measure Sars-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies, which are the ones that prevent infection.

The study was led byStagljarand Shawn Owen, an associate professor of pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical chemistry, at the University of Utah.

The journalNature Communications recentlypublished their findings.

Many antibody tests have been developed over the past two years. But only a few of the authorized ones are designed to monitor neutralizing antibodies, which coat the viral spike protein so that it can no longer bind its receptor and enter cells.

It's an important distinction, as only a fraction of all Sars-CoV-2 antibodies generated during infection are neutralizing. And while most vaccines were specifically designed to produce neutralizing antibodies, its not clear how much protection they give against variants.

Our method, which we named Neu-SATiN, is as accurate as but faster and cheaper than the gold standard, and it can be quickly adapted for new variants as they emerge, Stagljar said.

Neu-SATiN stands forNeutralizationSerologicalAssay based on splitTri-partNanoluciferase, and it is a newer version ofSATiN, which monitors the complete IgG poolthey developed last year.

The development of Neu-SATiN was spearheaded byZhong Yao, a senior research associate in Stagljars lab, and Sun Jin Kim, a post-doctoral researcherin Owens lab, who are the co-first authors on the paper.

The pinprick test is powered by the fluorescent luciferase protein from a deepwater shrimp. It measures the binding between the viral spike protein and its human ACE2 receptor, each of which is attached to a luciferase fragment. The engagement of the spike protein with ACE2 pulls the fragments close, catalyzing reconstitution of the full length luciferasewith a concomitant glow of light captured by the luminometer instrument. When a patients blood sample is added into the mixture, the neutralizing antibodies bind to and mop up all spike protein, while ACE2 remains in unengaged state. Consequentially, the luciferase remains in piecesand the light signal drops. The researchers say the plug-and-play design of the test means it can be adapted to emerging variants by engineering mutations in the spike protein.

The researchers applied Neu-SATiN to blood samples collected from 63 patients with different histories of COVID-19 and vaccinationup to November 2021. Patient neutralizing capacity was assessed against the original Wuhan strainand the following variants:Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron.

We thought it would be important to monitor people that have been vaccinated to see if they still have protection and how long it lasts, said Owen, who did his post-doctoral training in the Donnelly Centre with distinguished bioengineer and University Professor Molly Shoichet of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.But we also wanted to see if you were vaccinated against one variant, does it protect you against another variant?

The neutralizing antibodies were found to last about three to four months beforetheir levels would drop by about 70 per cent irrespective of infection or vaccination status. Hybrid immunity, acquired through both infection and vaccination, produced higher antibody levels at first, but these too dropped significantly four months later.

Most worryingly, infection and/or vaccination provided good protection against the previous variants, but not Omicronor its sub-variantsBA.4 and BA.5.

The data match those from arecent U.K. study thatshowed that both neutralizing antibodies and cellular immunity a type of immunity provided by memory T cellsfrom either infection, vaccination, or both, offered no protection from catching Omicron. In a surprising twist, the U.K. group also found that infections with Omicron boosted immunity against earlier strains, but not against Omicron itselffor reasons that remain unclear.

It's important to stress that vaccines still confer significant protection from severe disease and death, said Stagljar. Still, he added that the findings from his team and others call for vigilance in the coming periodgiven that the more transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants can escape immunity acquired from earlier infections with Omicron, as attested by rising reinfections.

There will be new variants in the near future for sure, Stagljar said. Monitoring and boosting immunity with respect to circulating variants will become increasingly important and our method could play a key role in this since it is fast, accurate, quantitative and cheap.

He is already collaborating with the Canadian vaccine maker Medicago to help determine the efficacy of their candidates against Omicron and its sub-variants.Meanwhile, U of T is negotiating to license Neu-SATiN to a company which will scale it up for real world usessuch as population immunosurveillance and vaccine development.

The research was supported with funding from the Toronto COVID-19 Action Fund,Division of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation and the 3i Initiative at the University of Utah.

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Researchers use rapid antibody test to gauge immune response to SARS-CoV-2 variants - University of Toronto

Human Behavior

Where 6th District Republicans stand on climate change, humanity’s role in it – Shaw Local News Network

Most of the Republicans running for Illinois 6th Congressional District seat said they believe humankind has a role in global climate change -- but not all are convinced.

The GOP candidates in the June 28 primary are energy consultant Niki Conforti of Glen Ellyn, Rob Cruz of Oak Lawn, Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso, lawyer Scott Kaspar of Orland Park, Oak Lawn real estate broker Catherine A. OShea and Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau.

They discussed climate change in Daily Herald questionnaires and follow-up emails.

Cruzsaid he isnt sure if he has enough information to opine on whether humankind is affecting climate change. The government should support reliable sources of energy while working on realistic alternative energy sources, Cruz said.

Confortisaid she thinks human behavior is among the factors behind climate change. There may also be natural causes, she said.

Fully shifting to renewable energy sources isnt feasible, however, she said. Further innovation should be encouraged, she added, and the government should support more than wind and solar energy.

My position is that we need a multipronged approach to satisfying our energy needs, Conforti said.

Grassoalso believes humans have played a role in climate change, pointing to scientific studies on the subject.

The U.S. can and should strive over time to lessen (its) carbon footprint, Grasso said. But in the short term, the economy and energy independence take a priority.

A global commitment is needed to make any effective changes to the climate, he added.

Kasparsaid humanity may be a factor in climate change, but he noted the climate has been changing since the dawn of time.

He opposes Green New Deal ecological and economic proposals, saying they would bankrupt every American long before we would see any appreciable difference in the climate.

We need a long-term energy plan that continues to lift humans out of poverty, not drive Americans into it, Kaspar said.

Like Kaspar,Pekaunoted the earths climate has always changed. Still, he acknowledges that growing human population has played a role.

To solve climate-related challenges, Pekau said the U.S. must become more energy independent by: using coal in cleaner ways; producing solar, geothermal and hydroelectric power; and investing more in nuclear power.

OSheadidnt directly answer the question and didnt respond to requests for clarity. She said people must respect our land, water and all Gods creations.

The newly redrawn 6th District includes much of the West and Southwest suburbs in Cook and DuPage counties.

The winner of the GOP primary will face one of three Democrats in the Nov. 8 general election: incumbent U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove; U.S. Rep. Marie Newman of La Grange, who now represents the 3rd District but is running in the 6th after boundaries changed last year; and Chicagoan Charles M. Hughes.

https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20220623/where-6th-district-republicans-stand-on-climate-change-humanitys-role-in-it

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Where 6th District Republicans stand on climate change, humanity's role in it - Shaw Local News Network

Neuroscience

Alzheimer’s Disease Causes Cells to Overheat and ‘Fry Like Eggs’ – Neuroscience News

Summary: The heat produced by amyloid-beta aggregation may cause other, healthy amyloid-beta to aggregate, causing more and more aggregates to form. However, with the addition of a novel drug compound, amyloid-beta aggregation can be stopped and the cell temperature lowered.

Source: University of Cambridge

Researchers have shown that aggregation of amyloid-beta, one of two key proteins implicated in Alzheimers disease, causes cells to overheat and fry like eggs.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used sensors small and sensitive enough to detect temperature changes inside individual cells, and found that as amyloid-beta misfolds and clumps together, it causes cells to overheat.

In an experiment using human cell lines, the researchers found the heat released by amyloid-beta aggregation could potentially cause other, healthy amyloid-beta to aggregate, causing more and more aggregates to form.

In the same series of experiments, the researchers also showed that amyloid-beta aggregation can be stopped, and the cell temperature lowered, with the addition of a drug compound. The experiments also suggest that the compound has potential as a therapeutic for Alzheimers disease, although extensive tests and clinical trials would first be required.

The researchers say their assay could be used as a diagnostic tool for Alzheimers disease, or to screen potential drug candidates.

Theresultsare reported in theJournal of the American Chemical Society.

Alzheimers disease affects an estimated 44 million people worldwide, and there are currently no effective diagnostics or treatments. In Alzheimers disease, amyloid-beta and another protein called tau build up into tangles and plaques known collectively as aggregates causing brain cells to die and the brain to shrink. This results in memory loss, personality changes and difficulty carrying out daily functions.

It is a difficult disease to study, since it develops over decades, and a definitive diagnosis can only be given after examining samples of brain tissue after death. It is still not known what kind of biochemical changes inside a cell lead to amyloid-beta aggregation.

InProfessor Gabriele Kaminski Schierles research groupat CambridgesDepartment of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, they have been investigating the possible link between temperature and amyloid-beta aggregation in human cells.

The field of studying temperature changes inside a cell is known as intracellular thermogenesis. It is a new and challenging field: scientists have developed sensors with which temperature changes can be measured, however, no one has ever tried to use these sensors to study conditions such as Alzheimers disease.

Thermogenesis has been associated with cellular stress, which may promote further aggregation, said Chyi Wei Chung, the studys first author. We believe that when theres an imbalance in cells, like when the amyloid-beta concentration is slightly too high and it starts to accumulate, cellular temperatures increase.

Overheating a cell is like frying an egg as it heats up, the proteins start to clump together and become non-functional, said Kaminski Schierle, who led the research.

The researchers used tiny temperature sensors called fluorescent polymeric thermometers (FTPs) to study the link between aggregation and temperature. They added amyloid-beta to human cell lines to kickstart the aggregation process and used a chemical called FCCP as a control, since it is known to induce an increase in temperature.

They found that as amyloid-beta started to form thread-like aggregates called fibrils, the average temperature of the cells started to rise. The increase in cellular temperature was significant compared to cells that did not have any amyloid-beta added.

As the fibrils start elongating, they release energy in the form of heat, said Kaminski Schierle. Amyloid-beta aggregation requires quite a lot of energy to get going, but once the aggregation process starts, it speeds up and releases more heat, allowing more aggregates to form.

Once the aggregates have formed, they can exit the cell and be taken up by neighbouring cells, infecting healthy amyloid-beta in those cells, said Chung. No one has shown this link between temperature and aggregation in live cells before.

Using a drug that inhibits amyloid-beta aggregation, the researchers were able to pinpoint the fibrils as the cause of thermogenesis. It had previously been unknown whether protein aggregation or potential damage to mitochondria the batteries that power cells was responsible for this phenomenon.

The researchers also found that the rise in cellular temperatures could be mitigated by treating them with an aggregation inhibitor, highlighting its potential as a therapeutic for Alzheimers disease.

The laboratory experiments were complemented by computational modelling describing what might happen to amyloid-beta in an intracellular environment and why it might lead to an increase in intracellular temperatures. The researchers hope their work will motivate new studies incorporating different parameters of physiological relevance.

Funding: The research was supported in part by Alzheimers Research UK, the Cambridge Trust, Wellcome, and the Medical Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Author: Sarah CollinsSource: University of CambridgeContact: Sarah Collins University of CambridgeImage: The image is credited to Chyi Wei Chung

Original Research: Open access.Intracellular A42 Aggregation Leads to Cellular Thermogenesis by Chyi Wei Chung et al. Journal of the American Chemical Association

Abstract

Intracellular A42 Aggregation Leads to Cellular Thermogenesis

The aggregation of A42 is a hallmark of Alzheimers disease. It is still not known what the biochemical changes are inside a cell which will eventually lead to A42 aggregation.

Thermogenesis has been associated with cellular stress, the latter of which may promote aggregation.

We perform intracellular thermometry measurements using fluorescent polymeric thermometers to show that A42 aggregation in live cells leads to an increase in cell-averaged temperatures. This rise in temperature is mitigated upon treatment with an aggregation inhibitor of A42 and is independent of mitochondrial damage that can otherwise lead to thermogenesis.

With this, we present a diagnostic assay which could be used to screen small-molecule inhibitors to amyloid proteins in physiologically relevant settings. To interpret our experimental observations and motivate the development of future models, we perform classical molecular dynamics of model A peptides to examine the factors that hinder thermal dissipation.

We observe that this is controlled by the presence of ions in its surrounding environment, the morphology of the amyloid peptides, and the extent of its hydrogen-bonding interactions with water.

We show that aggregation and heat retention by A peptides are favored under intracellular-mimicking ionic conditions, which could potentially promote thermogenesis. The latter will, in turn, trigger further nucleation events that accelerate disease progression.

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Alzheimer's Disease Causes Cells to Overheat and 'Fry Like Eggs' - Neuroscience News

Biochemistry

Steering committee of pulmonary and primary care experts aims to reduce time to diagnose complex lung diseases – Yahoo Finance

American College of Chest Physicians

William Lago, MD

Family Medicine Physician, Wooster Family Health Center, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Wooster, OH.

Andrew H. Limper, MD

Annenberg Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Director Thoracic Disease Research Unit, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN.

Bridging Specialties: Timely Diagnosis for ILD Patients

Composed of pulmonologists, primary care physicians, and a nursing professional, the steering committee will work to create materials that will aid in reducing the time it takes to reach a diagnosis for interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) like pulmonary fibrosis (PF).

GLENVIEW, Ill., May 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) and Three Lakes Foundation are announcing a steering committee of experts in the fields of pulmonary medicine and primary care medicine to lead an initiative called Bridging Specialties: Timely Diagnosis for ILD Patients. Composed of pulmonologists, primary care physicians, and a nursing professional, the steering committee will work to create materials that will aid in reducing the time it takes to reach a diagnosis for interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) like pulmonary fibrosis (PF).

Affecting about 400,000 people in the United States, ILDs comprise a group of diseases that cause lung inflammation and/or permanent scars and are frequently misdiagnosed as more common lung diseases. Some studies show that reaching an appropriate diagnosis for rarer lung diseases can take upwards of several years.

Members of the Bridging Specialties: Timely Diagnosis for ILD Patients steering committee include individuals from leading medical institutions, health systems and organizations across the country:

Daniel F. Dilling, MD, FCCP, Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Loyola University Chicago, Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, IL.

Andrew Duggan, MPH, Patient Engagement and Innovation Leader, Boston, MA.

Jessica Glennie, APRN, MSN, Nurse practitioner, Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH.

Timothy Hernandez, MD, Family Medicine Physician, Chief Executive Officer of Entira Family Clinics, San Antonio, TX.

Corey D. Kershaw, MD, FCCP, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX.

Tejaswini Kulkarni, MD, MPH, FCCP, Assistant Professor, Director, Interstitial Lung Disease Program, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL.

William Lago, MD, Family Medicine Physician, Wooster Family Health Center, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Wooster, OH.

Andrew H. Limper, MD, FCCP, Annenberg Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Director Thoracic Disease Research Unit, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN.

Anoop M. Nambiar, MD, MS, FCCP, Professor of Medicine, Founding Director of the UT Health San Antonio Center for Interstitial Lung Diseases, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and South Texas Veterans Health Care System, San Antonio, TX.

Mary Beth Scholand, MD, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Director, Interstitial Lung Program, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Story continues

While interstitial lung diseases do not affect a substantial amount of the population, those touched by the disease are impacted tremendously, says steering committee member and pulmonologist, Dr. Andrew H. Limper. Any delay in receiving a diagnosis is time that could be dedicated to finding a treatment therapy that can improve their quality of life. I look forward to the work of this committee helping to shape how patients with ILDs are diagnosed and treated in the future.

Starting with data-gathering surveys sent to both primary care physicians and pulmonologists, the committee will evaluate the findings to develop tools that can be used to aid in diagnosing complex lung diseases.

Having experts from both pulmonary and primary care medicine as members of the steering committee is critical, says steering committee member and Family Medicine physician, Dr. William Lago. Patients first see their family medicine or primary care clinicians and, all too often, the most complex lung diseases present in ways that are indistinguishable from more common conditions like asthma and COPD. Bringing together experts in both fields will yield the best results in creating a path to diagnosis.

Select members of the steering committee and representatives from CHEST and Three Lakes Foundation will be on-site (booth 2003) at the 2022 American Thoracic Society International Conference in San Francisco to provide additional details on the steering committee and the joint collaboration. To learn more about the initiative, visit the Three Lakes Foundation website or the CHEST website.

About the American College of Chest Physicians The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) is the global leader in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chest diseases. Its mission is to champion advanced clinical practice, education, communication and research in chest medicine. It serves as an essential connection to clinical knowledge and resources for its 19,000+ members from around the world who provide patient care in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. For information about the American College of Chest Physicians, and its flagship journal CHEST, visit chestnet.org.

About Three Lakes Foundation Three Lakes Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to serving as a catalyst for uniting research, industries and philanthropy in pulmonary fibrosis. We connect entrepreneurs, advocates and institutions to an innovation ecosystem that will transform our approach to improve time to diagnosis and accelerate new therapies. To learn more, visit threelakesfoundation.org.

Contact:CHESTLaura DiMasildimasi@chestnet.org224-521-9482

Three Lakes FoundationMarita Gomezmaritagomez@crispsolution.net630-936-9105

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ea95a17f-2ab7-4c31-9c40-7a14b3415411

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/39c028ad-14dc-477d-bd7a-212ef5451dc9

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9d395027-b16e-4f6d-bfa4-af2a12f72149

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Steering committee of pulmonary and primary care experts aims to reduce time to diagnose complex lung diseases - Yahoo Finance

Human Behavior

Heart Rhythm 2022 Highlights | DAIC – Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology

May 17, 2022 Heart Rhythm 2022 has come to a close, and the Heart Rhythm Society has released some stats regarding this year's conference.More than7,700+ heart rhythm professionals from around the worldwhose participation during Heart Rhythm 2022, along with their shared ideas and expertise, helped make this year's annual meeting a success.

Here is a look at the conference by the numbers:

The Top 10 sessions included:

During Heart Rhythm 2022, more than 750 international experts from the field will serve as faculty and abstract presenters for over 250 sessions. Meeting highlights include:

10 Education Tracks: Attendees will be able to choose sessions from 10 tracks with topics including Allied Professionals, Basic/Translational Science, Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Devices (CIEDs), Catheter Ablation, Clinical EP, Digital Health & Innovation, Health Policy, Heart Failure, Pediatrics & Adult Congenital Heart Disease, and Practice Management.

Keynote Speaker, Dr. Steve Robbins: Special keynote speaker Dr. Steve Robbins will explore the neuroscience of transformational change during the Opening Day Ceremony on Friday, April 29, from 3:30 4:30 p.m. PT. Robbins, author of What If? and artful storyteller, captivates audiences worldwide with his keen insight into human behavior. His presentation style has been described as a mix of Bill Nye the Science Guy, Saturday Night Live, and The Big Bang Theory.

Improved Online Experience: HRS will livestream select sessions from San Francisco from Friday, April 29 Sunday, May 1. The remaining sessions (100+ hours) presented will be available on-demand within 24 hours of their initial presentation time, which means attendees may watch the full suite of educational programming on demand as early as May 2, 2022.

Heart Rhythm TV: Coverage of Heart Rhythm 2022 science, including interviews and commentary, will air on HRS flagship YouTube channel.

For more information: http://www.HRSonline.org

Find more information on HRS22

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Heart Rhythm 2022 Highlights | DAIC - Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology

Cell Biology

‘We were so damn lucky to find this’: Tennesseans close to developing radiation exposure drug – Knoxville News Sentinel

Russian troops exposed to radiation, Chernobyl experts say

Thousands of enemy tanks and troops rumbled into Chernobyl during Russias invasion of Ukraine churning up highly contaminated soil.

Scott L. Hall, USA TODAY

Scientists in Tennessee are developing a promising drug they desperately hope will never be used.

Its a treatment that could rescue people from gastrointestinal acute radiation syndrome. In blunt terms, radiation poisoning.

"We were so damn lucky to find this mechanism that nature invented for us," said Dr. Gabor Tigyi,a cell biologist and cancer researcher at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. "We made a drug to harness it. .. It took about 20 years to figure out what we had in hand."

There is no drug on the market for the treatment of this illness. It's a weakness in our country's preparedness for nuclear accidents and attacks.

The drug is important locally, too. Much of the nations nuclear waste is processed in Tennessee. The state is home to many legacy nuclear sites, some of which date back to the World War II Manhattan Project.

More: Webb School of Knoxville dedicates new Governors Center for Innovation

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When the human body is exposed to radiation, high-energy particles penetrate cells and tissues to damage our DNA and cellular machinery. DNA damage is the reason why radiation exposure can induce cancers. Not all DNA damage repair occurs without error, and those errors can induce mutations that favor tumors.

When the body is exposed to very high levels of radiation for a brief period of time the kind of exposure that can happen in a nuclear accident the danger isnt necessarily cancer but loss of function in organs and tissues. Each tissue has different tolerances for radiation doses.

Two of the most sensitive tissues are bone marrow and intestinal tissue. Bone marrow is the nursery of red and white blood cells. Stem cells in the bone marrow constantly grow and divide to replace blood cells that expire.

"The lymphocytes in the blood and bone marrow, those are exquisitely sensitive," said Carol Iddins, director of theRadiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site in Oak Ridge. "They are arguably the most sensitive cells in our bodies so they're going to drop faster and harder."

But bone marrow damage from radiation already has treatments, and they are effective. Those drugs were developed for cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy.

"That was a low-hanging fruit, really," said Andrea DeCarlo-Cohen, director of the, Radiation and Nuclear Countermeasures Program at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Because bone marrow complications kill much faster than other radiation complications, the drugs were prioritized, she said.

But no treatment existed for gastrointestinal cells.

"It's a much more complex injury," DeCarlo-Cohen said. "The stem cell biology of the GI tract is behind. ...It's just a much more complex structure."

The intestine is lined with a single layer of rapidly-diving cells. These cells grow upward into wavy, hair-like structures called villi. The stem cells and youngest cells are at the bottom. As cells age, they are pushed up the villi until they are shed into the intestine. Each intestinal cell lives for about four or five days before being shed.

That kind of cell turnover requires active adult stem cells. The intestine is full of them, constantly growing and dividing. When the intestine is hit by a high dose of radiation, it can damage the stem cells, causing them to self-destruct.

One of the ways the body prevents most cancersis a cellular self-destruct mechanism called apoptosis.

Tigyi'sdrug stimulates the DNA repair mechanism and slows down apoptosis. This buys some time for the intestinal stem cells to save themselves from radiation damage.

In tests on mice and monkeys, Tigyi's drug improved the survival rate after radiation exposure.

Tigyioriginally stumbled onto this mechanism while looking at platelets, the cell fragments your body uses to form blood clots. He found a short-lived signaling molecule, LPA,associated with wound repair.

"Our compound is modeled after this natural compound,"Tigyi said. "It promotes these mechanisms that lead to survival, regeneration and radiation protection."

If you can interrupt the self-destruct process long enough for the cells natural DNA repair mechanism to kick in, then you can potentially savestem cells and prevent catastrophic damage.

"The fundamental issue is enhancing DNA repair," Tigyi said. "Your cells are programmed such that if DNA damage is not repaired, the cell undergoes apoptosis and dies."

In other news: Blackberry Farm alum brings 'low and slow' barbecue to new East Tennessee restaurant

More: University of Tennessee's new out-of-state space research center launchesin Rocket City, Alabama

Dr. Shannon McCool was brought in to shepherd the drug process through FDA approvals. McCool is a graduate of UT's Health Science Center who has worked for large pharmaceutical operations like Eli Lilly and has experience navigating the regulatory landscape.

In 2000, the duo founded RxBio, a pharmaceutical company in Johnson City, toensure the drug was approved for treatment. The research wasin the final rounds of safety testing when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The pandemic didnt just make the research harder from a logistical standpoint.McCool said it becamedifficult to get funding.

"Nobody would give you the time of day," McCool said, referring to discussions with the Pentagon about defense-oriented medical funding."COVID-19 had sucked all the air out of the room."

A drug like this doesnt have to go through the standard FDA phased clinical trials because, of course, its not ethical to irradiate human beings.But itdoes have to go through extensive safety testing in large animal model systems. Thatcan be expensive.

Nowthere is potential space for the drug to get additional funding. Tigyi hopes that working with the Tennessee congressional delegation will help secure enough funding to begin passing the FDA's safety standards.

"We've been barely staying alive for the last several years," McCool said. "We estimate that we need $35 million, plus another 50-100 million on top of that to get everything done that we estimate the FDA will want us to do."

In an earlier version of this storyDr. Gabor Tigyi's name wasmisspelled. The error has been corrected in this version.

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'We were so damn lucky to find this': Tennesseans close to developing radiation exposure drug - Knoxville News Sentinel

Human Behavior

The Metaverse: What Is It, and Why Should You Care? – TechSpot

The Metaverse. Some are calling it the next evolution of the Internet, others say it's already existed for years. One way or another, it's the focus of some of the most influential media companies in the world, and you should look into it, too.

I've always been fascinated with the Metaverse, long before I even knew there was a name tied to the idea. Going all the way back to when I was a young boy. Like most other little boys, I was dreaming of being a superhero, a knight, a swashbuckler, and on the most whimsical days, some conglomeration of those and many more action-y archetypes rolled into one as I adventured through various worlds built in the collective fantasy of my friends and I.

Illustration by Mo

As time went on, I relegated those realm-treading ideas to the section at the back of my mind labeled "fanciful nonsense," right next to light-sabers and world peace-thinking that videogames and books would be the closest of proxy for exploring other worlds that I'd have in my lifetime.

That course of thinking was changed in an instant one Saturday afternoon on a visit to a friend's house. I had popped in unannounced to find many of my peers lumped into a crowd, trilling with unabashed awe. When they had enough sense about them collectively to notice the new arrival, I was ushered to the center of the crowd, and strapped into a bulky headset, the Oculus Rift, playing a game called Robo Recall a simple affair where you shoot at errant robots rampaging through a futuristic city.

Totally enveloped, with a level of immersion I had never approached, even with the most thrilling of media I'd ever consumed, I was gleefully tearing through these hordes of robots.

I wasn't pointing a crosshair at these robots and clicking like had always been the case before. Instead, I was looking down the sights of the wacky, futuristic weapons by moving my hand to eye level, pinching my real fingers together to catch a bullet, and slinging my wrist forward to throw things.

It was mere seconds before the thoughts of the bulky headgear and alien controllers were completely gone, and I was completely within this game. Alas, the game came not without danger- I whipped to my right to shoot one of those rampaging robots and felt a sharp crack in the back of my hand, and pulling the headset off, I realized I had clubbed one of my boys with the Rift's controller.

As he picked himself up from the floor I put myself into time-out for being a danger to myself and others, and as I sat off to the side watching as others took their own turns shooting robots I was totally elated. This thing I was seeing -- I knew it was monumentous. Not just because this technology on its own was revolutionary and kind of amazing to behold, but because it was a tiny baby-step between the real world and a fantastical and truly infinite one, appealing to some latent hope deep within me. Something that seemed so impossibly far away, was emerging into reality, and having the incredible courtesy not only to happen during my lifetime, but in front of my very eyes.

Before we delve into the vast and complex issue of trying to divine the future of technology a task in which many more qualified before me have failed miserably or become exalted in their unparalleled facticity, I would like to include something akin to a disclaimer.

Takes on the internet, smartphones, television, and basically every other innovation of technology at the time of their conception and adoption have a tendency to skew outwards to those two extremes. We highlight and make prolific use of the most egregious deniers using the clarity of hindsight to make those speakers of antiquity into a mockery, or highlight people who were ahead of their time while ignoring the middling opinions that make up the contemporary thought.

Image credit: Jezael Melgoza

While I sing the praises of the amazing technological advancements, I also hope to forewarn that there are terrible dangers afoot. The more we become lost in the coming wonderland, the more the masters of that domain will have the ability to influence our lives, ideas, and perception an opportunity we know they will seize if given.

I believe that the Metaverse is an inevitability, save for a catastrophe of infrastructure or a foundational shift in human behavior. As is the order of our society, what once was a whimsical idea will be breathed into reality moving forward, even if it manifests as malignant and damnably corrupted.

As I see it, humanity approaches the Metaverse, treading a narrow and harrowing path. Waiting at the end, the ultimate reward for going where we have never dared, nor had the ability to go before, an Eden where humanity's technological staking will allow us to meaningfully transcend many of the boundaries of our primary physical reality and largely eliminate the logistical hurdles of space and distance from a myriad of activities.

The danger lies on either side of that path, pulling at us with an avaricious gravity towards gray quagmires of corporate control. Places where many of humanity's base freedoms are an illusion. The barons of those desolate kingdoms having complete control over what may exist within this new reality that we adopt.

As we explore the idea of the Metaverse here today, I plead with you to consider that the technology that will soon be at our disposal does not have the innate quality of being a supreme good, nor an ultimate, undoing evil. It is something that will be built and guided by the actions and ideals of many people, and has the capability to end up in either of these final destinations, and so many in between.

The prefix "Meta-" means beyond, and "-verse" refers to the Universe. Combine them to get the rather fitting term "Metaverse," meaning "beyond the Universe." All things considered, Metaverse feels an appropriately extravagant word for the ideas it represents.

This shiny new buzzword we're throwing around isn't actually so new. It originated in the 1992 Sci-fi novel, Snow Crash. I feel it is of note that this is the same place that is thought to have popularized the term "avatar" when referring to a digital representation of someone, so just with that accolade you can tell Snow Crash had its effect on the tech decades beyond when it was written.

While that's all good and dandy, choosing to use this term feels like a terrible, looming omen when you look at the source material. Snow Crash presents a dystopian, fractured state in a year very near to our own. In this shattered vision of America, what are essentially corporate oligarchs have all of the power in the presented society, and aim to employ literal memetic viruses that reprogram the human mind.

Facebook, a company constantly under fire for misuse of information and largely accused of shady and unscrupulous practices, taking up its new mantle of "Meta," and pledging to build the Metaverse seems to be about as on the nose as falling face first into asphalt. The cynic in me almost sees this as a brazen admission. Like, they're coming right out and saying, "Yup, we're done hiding it. We are untenably unconcerned with the well being of you lowly peasants. Our hegemony over information will be brutal and unceasing."

"Well," you might be asking, "now that you've scared me with your grossly exaggerated pessimism, what actually is this Metaverse thing you're talking about?" And I'd say that it's rather difficult to pin down.

What might have someone said if you asked them what an automobile was in the early 1880's, prior to their public sale? There were some brilliant people, and they probably could have come up with some idea of what that might be, but the first automobiles were not yet available for them to see.

The Metaverse exists in this same space at the moment. We can talk about it, and think about it, but it is rather impalpable in that the Metaverse is very different from anything that exists right now.

Illustration by Mo

As simply as I can put it, the Metaverse is a network of virtual 3D spaces we would be able to venture into and move between, functioning as a sort of 3D internet- or an "internet of places." Ideally, it would be engaged with using virtual reality devices, but would likely allow for augmented reality and traditional 2D displays to participate as well.

Imagine the world in The Matrix or Ready Player One. Those are two contemporary, and also dystopian (is anyone else noticing a pattern emerge?), examples of a Metaverse. Hopefully, the emerging real world version won't involve enslavement by robotic overlords or a large, and rather uncomfortable looking port being drilled into the back of your head, but I'm not going to file it away as an impossibility.

There have been things that you might have interacted with before that are tiny microcosms of what the Metaverse might be when it comes into reality. Games like World of Warcraft and Runescape have full blown human-driven economies, in worlds populated by millions of people. Fortnite has been host to live and synchronous events for millions of users on several occasions now, and regularly incorporates through collaboration the intellectual properties of other companies in the form of events and cosmetics. Roblox allows users to create games, events, and cosmetics that other users can buy and use. Twitch and YouTube allow for viewers to consume content in a live and social way, regardless of location.

Now, to imagine the Metaverse all you need to do is roll all of those, and a million other things, into one simultaneously cohesive and disjointed package. I'm not going to lie to you here and pretend I know what's going to happen in the future, but I sure can try to take my best guess.

The Metaverse wouldn't just be for gaming, even if most of my examples might indicate otherwise. Digital games just serve as a great jumping off point for many of the ideas involved because they are our most common foray into virtual worlds. Instead, the Metaverse would serve as humanity's new Mecca for interaction if everything goes as planned, where instead of heading to a website on the Internet, you would navigate to a virtual space within the Metaverse. At this point in time it's a set of ideas that we have a rough outline to strive towards in the future.

Matthew Ball, a venture capitalist in the realm of tech, and now rising to a higher strata of fame as some sort of Metaverse oracle figure, has many writings on the Metaverse that are openly praised by enthusiasts and the figureheads of tech alike. He laid out these core elements of the Metaverse as a part of a growing series of essays discussing this upcoming new era of technology.

Persistent - Possibly the least controversial element in discussions I have found. There must be no ending to the Metaverse, nor stoppages. It would just go on in perpetuity. Like today's internet, the Metaverse must always be there. Individual pieces, say a particular game or virtual plaza, might lose support from their owners or have a lapse in availability due to extenuating circumstances, but the Metaverse as a network needs to be something that is always available if you have a device and a connection.

Image credit: Sandro Katalina

Live - The Metaverse should largely take place in real time. Even though there will be instanced content maybe in the order of a dungeon in a video game, or a private movie showing, most things taking place should be happening for everyone at the same time.

A very solid example of this is the aforementioned live events hosted in Fortnite. When Ariana Grande's music was playing at her digital concert, everyone was hearing it simultaneously and participating in mini-games with other players for the duration.

A complete economy - In the Metaverse people will be able to own, trade, and invest in just about anything that goes on there. This likely begins with digital goods and real estate, but will become more diverse with a variety of services and speculative assets as time goes on. It's highly likely that there will be jobs that exist entirely within the Metaverse, and the currencies of choice will become legitimized and able to be exchanged with real world money.

If you're like me, the concept of digital property may sound preposterous, but in doing research about the Metaverse I found examples going back almost two decades that offered a small bit of legitimacy. Entropia Universe, an MMO that launched in 2003, has had virtual land and buildings sold for hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars in at least one case.

Unlimited user capacity - Like today's internet, there should be hypothetically no limit to how many people might be using the Metaverse at once. Not every single place within the Metaverse needs to be able to house the entire world, but the overall network of spaces should be unlimited in capacity.

Inter-usage of data and assets - A good portion of the items that exist within the Metaverse should be able to move with you from one setting or scene to another. Your favorite "I'm with stupid" hat for your avatar should be able to follow you from a movie viewing, to a game, to your company's virtual workspace (though you might want to take that off unless your boss is really cool) to most other places you go in the Metaverse.

Populated by a diverse pool of creators - In the Metaverse, anyone should be able to develop experiences for others to enjoy. Games, videos, movies, episodicals, and more should be able to enter this realm from any person with the know-how.

Like how anyone can make a website on the internet today, anyone should be able to set up their own space within the Metaverse and populate it with whatever they like. With the amazing programs some of which I'll touch on later in this piece this creation will be easier and more accessible to people without the specialized skills you need to make similar things today.

This last criterion is one glimmering shard of hope for the Metaverse. I know it is the general impression that Meta, Epic and Microsoft own the Metaverse before it even exists, however this is not the reality. Just like the Internet, no sole proprietor will own the Metaverse. Undoubtedly, some of the existing titanic tech companies, and a handful of new ones, will have a large influence and an equally large share of the traffic there, but it is something that belongs to everyone. There is the possibility that if the Metaverse is treated as such from the get-go, we might steer it away from the failings that plague the Internet in its current state.

The Metaverse won't be some monolithic piece of sci-fi level tech. It is an intricate web of slowly developing pieces that will come together into a global conglomerate. Hopefully, just like the internet before it, there will be constant evolution and change throughout the life of the Metaverse.

Now that the Metaverse is on people's minds and making waves in the media, we're sure to see a growing wave of support pouring into its development. Even if there is no shortage of people who will disparage the very concept, the Metaverse is still likely to be adopted quickly if it follows the trend of emerging technologies of the past.

Image credit: Muhammad Asyfaul

Humans are creatures of convenience, and if this new stuff makes their lives easier or more enjoyable they will use it. I may not be ancient and wizened, but I have been around long enough to remember when smartphones were "just a silly little fad."

Here are some examples of companies and their projects that are making a push into the Metaverse.

Meta, formerly Facebook, has made quite the show hiring a force of ten thousand European workers to develop the Metaverse. What exactly they have in mind is still shrouded in some mystery. We can take a look at one of their latest projects to get a glimpse into what they might be up to. Meta launched Horizon Worlds at the end of last year. This project works as a hub to explore user-designed 3D worlds in virtual reality.

In its current state, this appears to be rather rudimentary and impractical, but if you can look beyond the simplistic graphics and the horrifically puny 20 user limit per world, you can get a glimpse of how the Metaverse might work from a user standpoint.

Horizon has you open into a miniature hub-world where you can browse through community made content. Once you find a place to go, you just tap a button and you're teleported there.

Something like this will be a necessity in a realized Metaverse. Just like the Internet, you'll need some sort of browser program unless you just love punching in direct addresses. It looks like Meta's goal here is to create Metaverse navigation tools and they are largely neglecting to make content of their own.

Epic has been very forward that they hope to be on the vanguard of the Metaverse's creation. Massive hit game, Fortnite, has proven to be more culturally significant than you might expect from a cartoonishly styled game for all ages. Without trying to be disparaging, at least some of the astronomical success Fortnite has seen is from its events and crossovers with other massive brands.

At the peak of the hype around the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you could log into Fortnite to find a special game-mode where you had the chance to play as Thanos. When they changed the game's iconic map out for a newer one, there was a lead up event with cutscenes starring Dwayne Johnson.

They have used the game as a platform for live digital events for massively popular musical guests. You can find character crossovers from every place imaginable. There's John Wick, Spiderman, and even some real people like Ninja and Ariana Grande have been immortalized as skins in the game.

The point in all this is: Epic is doing the type of stuff that has to make the Metaverse a very fun and interesting place, and are setting a gold standard for the types of entertainment that will be huge within it. Furthermore, Fortnite gives people the opportunity to make their own island, and design the games and activities there, giving users a taste of that network-of-places style so important to the Metaverse.

Some of Epic's other efforts can be seen as both steps towards establishing themselves within the Metaverse and being very developer friendly. They are selling access to Unreal Engine licensing at a very competitive rate, and offering a desirable shopfront for smaller developers by taking a much smaller cut of the pie when it comes to revenue relative to other major sellers.

They are also giving free access to developers for their Easy Anti-Cheat and Voice services, both used in the smooth multiplayer experience of Fortnite (and many other titles you've probably heard of). By having this shared communication infrastructure built into many games, including one of the largest of all time, they are establishing a stronger case that those platforms define the standard when moving forward.

Since the interchange of assets and information from place to place is a key element of a realized Metaverse, there will be a coming standardization of many things, and it appears that Epic is trying now to establish leverage for their own creations to set that standard in the areas where they are staked.

With those things in mind and the absolutely staggering visuals of the new Unreal Engine 5, it wouldn't surprise me if Epic's engine, communication services, and storefront are worked to become a foundational piece of the Metaverse as it moves forward.

Epic has also recently fought legal battles with Apple and Google over what they call antitrust behavior about their market practices, claiming that among other things, the high share they demand, is harmful to developers using their storefronts. While Apple was found in their case not to be monopolistic, there was an injunction made that forbids them from continuing some practices that limited consumer choices in their stores.

While none of us are green enough to think that this is done out of altruism on Epic's part, the fact that corporate maneuvering has a side effect that is beneficial to smaller developers offers hope that some of these giant players might come to challenge the practices of their competitors moving forward.

For the Metaverse to live up to its potential, it will need to be an environment where developers of all sizes have the opportunity to add their own creations with fair chance at compensation.

Microsoft is trying to advance remote business solutions for the Metaverse with something called Mesh. Microsoft mesh is touting its "Holoportation" technology- live scanning and rendering of something inside of a virtual space.

In the Mesh trailer below you see the participants each wearing AR or VR headsets working together over a holographic display laid out on the table. Beyond that, Mesh allows integration with Office 365, and can allow users to introduce their files into the shared space for real-time edits from their team.

Any movement or changes should be visible wherever the viewers are within about a tenth of a second. As high-speed internet becomes available ubiquitously, this is just about as close to teleportation as we're gonna get short of a real life teleportation device. By making remote work and meetings as seamless as they can be by utilizing this new software with augmented reality, we are likely to see more and more people become remote workers.

Nvidia is definitely a contender in the literal shaping of the Metaverse, with Omniverse, a suite of programs used to create virtual spaces and bring them to life. It is kind of like the aforementioned Mesh, but for building 3D environments.

By coupling with the tools that people are using today to shape, edit, texture, render etc. 3D places and things, and adding the ability to collaborate these things in real time, this program is leaping forward in how streamlined and cooperative the process of building in 3D can be.

Either Omniverse, or something like it is going to be what shapes the places that make up the Metaverse. Omniverse makes it easier than ever to create high quality virtual spaces, which are the foundation of anything happening in the Metaverse. Imagine the things that you might see if entire teams of environmental designers, and animators working together in one live space.

On top of all of that, there are AI-powered solutions within these programs to speed up the tedium inherent to these types of tasks. The most amazing tool that I saw automatically animated faces speaking by tying them to a video or script. As these tools become more and more powerful, making a world of your own will eventually become easy enough for most anyone to do it.

Even though I've only spoken of corporate endeavors in this section, in a place that's designed to be an endless world of experiences, the user generated will vastly outnumber the proprietary in volume. Everyone, if they so desire, will be able to leave their own mark on this new world.

Image credit: S R

The Metaverse needs you to exist. There will be a need for the creative types to fill it with interesting things to do. We need to be technically oriented to design the necessary infrastructure to support it. We need the politically inclined to vote for policy makers that resist the iron grip of those that would pervert these new vistas for personal gain. We need people who understand this new technology and how to drive it to its fullest potential. Only together with our wonderful tapestry of skills can make real this new place that not long ago we all relegated as fanciful nonsense.

As with every other wave of technology, this one will bring with it solutions to old problems, and pose new ones of its own. The creation and operation of a project of this scale will create many, many jobs. Meta is hiring ten thousand to work on building the Metaverse.

As it comes closer to reality, there will be a growing need for specialized development of hardware and software ecosystems that rise to the myriad challenges present in bringing the Metaverse to fruition. Not only will these rising fields create employment for many people, but they will need people to teach them, and design their software and equipment.

Image: Mo

Furthermore, in this environment where you need only to log in to work instead of commute, startups utilizing the new tech can hire workers from anywhere in the world and invite them to their virtual space. As the Metaverse is embraced by the masses, many people will be untethered physically from their job.

As of March 2021, 21% of Americans were teleworking, and according to Global Workplace Analytics' expectations, by the end of 2021, 25-30% of the global workforce was to be working from home. During the era of the Metaverse, that section of the workforce will only grow, and they can choose to live wherever they like with little consideration for where their employers may be. Perhaps this new paradigm will allow people to move closer to their families, or maybe an introverted professional would like a remote house far away from the bustle of cities.

There is something going on in Venezuela that we'll see more of after the Metaverse becomes accessible. Due to a period of unprecedented inflation, many people there have turned to selling gold and items in the aforementioned multiplayer game Runescape, because it has a relatively stable in-game economy and using it to bring in foreign money from the global player-base was more sustainable and effective in earning than even high-skill jobs within Venezuela.

In ways similar to this, the Metaverse might be utilized creatively to open up avenues of capital to those that need it the most.

For certain types of disabilities, the Metaverse has the potential to be an even field in a way that real life can't quite match. Those with reduced mobility will likely be able to participate in events they might be barred from in real life, while perhaps a deaf individual might have the option to render subtitles for the goings on in a way to feel more included. As a physically disabled person, the Metaverse shines as a rapturous decoupling of the bodies of the enfeebled and their ability to participate in things like exploration and socialization.

It's no secret that being endlessly connected to everyone else has some negative modifier on social interactions and mental health, especially in teenagers. From 2008 to 2019, the reported rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in young adults rose by 47% along with the meteoric rise of social media and those two phenomena are largely believed to be intertwined.

Image credit: Shubham Dhage

The Metaverse might worsen this social woe, but some say the opposite. Virtual worlds are thought to be more socially intimate than scrolling through your feed. Maybe a new form of social media based on doing and experiencing things together will be a mentally healthier alternative than looking at selectively chosen snapshots and snippets of others' lives. It's unknown what effect this will have on socialization, but we can all try to hope for a turn to the positive. I for one, know anecdotally that Twitter and Instagram introduced leagues more strife into my life than stacking blocks with my friends in Minecraft.

The Metaverse will likely require a staggering amount of energy to keep running. We know little so far about how the Metaverse will be hosted, or how its data will be managed, but it is almost a certainty that it will have its costs. There's no telling which available technology, or new ones, we will use to create and distribute electricity in the future, but as it stands now there is a likelihood that the Metaverse has the potential to be environmentally deleterious within the existing state in which energy is produced.

Like with the internet, we can imagine there will be an army of scammers trying to defraud normal people, and any new tech is going to empower them with new tools and strategies. Americans are defrauded out of billions of dollars each year through internet and telephone scam strategies. Unless preventive measures are taken to protect people in the Metaverse, or there is education made available on how to protect yourself in this environment, more Metaverse users than necessary will fall victim to these new methods.

Like all new things, the Metaverse will be unpredictable, and tainted by certain less than desirable elements, but has the potential to be something wonderful and fun to reignite that childish whimsy so often pushed away in our modern world. A new and endless frontier for exploration waits just over the horizon. Together we can dive in and experience a whole new universe of possibilities as it unfolds right in front of us. Not long ago, this kind of technology would have been impossible to tell apart from magic, and we are so lucky to see it all coming together.

Masthead credit: julien Tromeur

Read more:
The Metaverse: What Is It, and Why Should You Care? - TechSpot

Cell Biology

Landing Therapeutic Genes Safely in the Human Genome Improving Gene and Cell Therapies – SciTechDaily

By Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at HarvardJanuary 24, 2022

A collaborative research team at Harvards Wyss Institute and the ETH Zurich in Switzerland has identified genomic safe harbors (GSHs) in the tumultuous sea of human genome sequence to land therapeutic genes in. As part of their validation, they inserted a fluorescent GFP reporter gene into candidate GSHs and followed its expression over time. The GSHs could enable safer and longer-lasting expression of genes in future gene and cellular therapies. This illustration won the team the cover of the Cell Reports Methods issue the study is published in. Credit: Erik Aznauryan

Researchers at Harvards Wyss Institute, Harvard Medical School, and the ETH Zurich predict and validate genomic safe harbors for therapeutic genes, enabling safer, more efficient, and predictable gene and cell therapies.

Many future gene and cell therapies to treat diseases like cancer, rare genetic and other conditions could be enhanced in their efficacy, persistence, and predictability by so-called genomic safe harbors (GSHs). These are landing sites in the human genome able to safely accommodate new therapeutic genes without causing other, unintended changes in a cells genome that could pose a risk to patients.

However, finding GSHs with potential for clinical translation has been as difficult as finding a lunar landing site for a spacecraft which has to be in smooth and approachable territory, not too steep and surrounded by large hills or cliffs, provide good visibility, and enable a safe return. A GSH, similarly, needs to be accessible by genome editing technologies, free of physical obstacles like genes and other functional sequences, and allow high, stable, and safe expression of a landed therapeutic gene.

Thus far, only few candidate GSHs have been explored and they all come with certain caveats. Either they are located in genomic regions that are relatively dense with genes, which means that one or several of them could be compromised in their function by a therapeutic gene inserted in their vicinity, or they contain genes with roles in cancer development that could be inadvertently activated. In addition, candidate GSHs have not been analyzed for the presence of regulatory elements that, although not being genes themselves, can regulate the expression of genes from afar, nor whether inserted genes change global gene expression patterns in cells across the entire genome.

Now, a collaboration of researchers at Harvards Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard Medical School (HMS), and the ETH Zurich in Switzerland, has developed a computational approach to identify GSH sites with significantly higher potential for the safe insertion of therapeutic genes and their durable expression across many cell types. For two out of 2,000 predicted GSH sites, the team provided an in-depth validation with adoptive T cell therapies and in vivo gene therapies for skin diseases in mind. By engineering the identified GSH sites to carry a reporter gene in T cells, and a therapeutic gene in skin cells, respectively, they demonstrated safe and long-lasting expression of the newly introduced genes. The study is published in Cell Reports Methods.

While GSHs could be utilized as universal landing platforms for gene targeting, and thus expedite the clinical development of gene and cell therapies, so far no site of the human genome has been fully validated and all of them are only acceptable for research applications, said Wyss Core Faculty member George Church, Ph.D., a senior author on the study. This makes the collaborative approach that we took toward highly-validated GSHs an important step forward. Together with more effective targeted gene integration tools that we develop in the lab, these GSHs could empower a variety of future clinical translation efforts. Church is a leader of the Wyss Institutes Synthetic Biology Platform, and also the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at HMS and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The researchers first set up a computational pipeline that allowed them to predict regions in the genome with potential for use as GSHs by harnessing the wealth of available sequencing data from human cell lines and tissues. In this step-by-step whole-genome scan we computationally excluded regions encoding proteins, including proteins that have been involved in the formation of tumors, and regions encoding certain types of RNAs with functions in gene expression and other cellular processes. We also eliminated regions that contain so-called enhancer elements, which activate the expression of genes, often from afar, and regions that comprise the centers and ends of chromosomes to avoid mistakes in the replication and segregation of chromosomes during cell division, said first-author Erik Aznauryan, Ph.D. This left us with around 2,000 candidate loci all to be further investigated for clinical and biotechnological purposes.

Aznauryan started the project as a graduate student with other members of Sai Reddys lab at ETH Zurichs Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering before he visited the Church lab as part of his graduate work, where he teamed up with Wyss Technology Development Fellow Denitsa Milanova, Ph.D. He since has joined Churchs group as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Reddy, senior and lead author of the collaborative study, is an Associate Professor of Systems and Synthetic Immunology at ETH Zurich and focuses on developing new methods in systems and synthetic biology to engineer immune cells for diverse research and clinical applications.

Out of the 2,000 identified GSH sites, the team randomly selected five and investigated them in common human cell lines by inserting reporter genes into each of them using a rapid and efficient CRISPR-Cas9-based genome editing strategy. Two of the GSH sites allowed particularly high expression of the inserted reporter gene in fact, significantly higher than expression levels achieved by the team with the same reporter gene engineered into two earlier-generation GSHs. Importantly, the reporter genes harbored by the two GSH sites did not upregulate any cancer-related genes, said Aznauryan. This also can become possible because regions in the genome distant from one another in the linear DNA sequence of chromosomes, but near in the three-dimensional genome, in which different regions of folded chromosomes touch each other, can become jointly affected when an additional gene is inserted.

To evaluate the two most compelling GSH sites in human cell types with interest for cell and gene therapies, the team investigated them in immune T cells and skin cells, respectively. T cells are used in a number of adoptive cell therapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases that could be safer if the receptor-encoding gene was stably inserted into a GSH. Also, skin diseases caused by harmful mutations in genes controlling the function of cells in different skin layers could potentially be cured by insertion and long-term expression of a healthy copy of the mutated gene into a GSH of dividing skin cells that replenish those layers.

We introduced a fluorescent reporter gene into two new GSHs in primary human T cells obtained from blood, and a fully functional LAMB3 gene, an extracellular protein in the skin, into the same GSHs in primary human dermal fibroblasts, and observed long-lasting activity, said Milanova. While these GSHs are uniquely positioned to improve on levels and persistence of gene expression in parent and daughter cells for therapeutics, I am particularly excited about emerging gain-of-function cellular enhancements that could augment the normal function of cells and organs. The safety aspect is then of paramount importance. With an entrepreneurial team at the Wyss, Milanova is developing a platform for genetic rejuvenation and enhancements with a focus on skin rejuvenation.

An extensive sequencing analysis that we undertook in GSH-engineered primary human T cells clearly demonstrated that the insertion has minimal potential for causing tumor-promoting effects, which always is a main concern when genetically modifying cells for therapeutic use, said Reddy. The identification of multiple GSH sites, as we have done here, also supports the potential to build more advanced cellular therapies that use multiple transgenes to program sophisticated cellular responses, this is especially relevant in T cell engineering for cancer immunotherapy.

This collaborative interdisciplinary effort demonstrates the power of integrating computational approaches with genome engineering while maintaining a focus on clinical translation. The identification of GSHs in the human genome will greatly augment future developmental therapeutics efforts focused on the engineering of more effective and safer gene and cellular therapies, said Wyss Founding Director Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., who is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at HMS and Boston Childrens Hospital, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Reference: Discovery and validation of human genomic safe harbor sites for gene and cell therapies by Erik Aznauryan, Alexander Yermanos, Elvira Kinzina, Anna Devaux, Edo Kapetanovic, Denitsa Milanova, George M. Church and Sai T.Reddy, 14 January 2022, Cell Reports Methods.DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2021.100154

Additional authors on the study are Alexander Yermanos, Ph.D, and Edo Kapetanovic, members of Reddys group; Anna Devaux at the University of Basel, Switzerland; and, Elvira Kinzina at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. The study was supported by ETH Research Grants, the Helmut Horten Stiftung and Aging and Longevity-Related Research Fund at HMS, as well as a Genome Engineer Innovation Grant 2019 from Synthego to Aznauryan.

More here:
Landing Therapeutic Genes Safely in the Human Genome Improving Gene and Cell Therapies - SciTechDaily

Neuroscience

Associate / Full Professor of Theoretical Biophysics and Machine Learning job with RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN | 278686 – Times Higher Education (THE)

Associate / Full Professor of Theoretical Biophysics and Machine Learning

A world from which we demand more and more requires people who can make a contribution. Critical thinkers who will take a closer look at what is really important. As a Professor, you will perform leading research and teach students in the area of theoretical biophysics and physics-based machine learning, to strengthen the role and visibility of the international Theoretical Biophysics landscape.

As a successful candidate you will join the Department of Biophysics at the Donders Center for Neuroscience (DCN) and perform internationally leading theoretical research in an area of theoretical biophysics or physics-based machine learning. You are interested in applications of theoretical biophysics methods to neuroscience problems studied in the DCN, and you will engage actively in interdisciplinary research collaborations with other physicists in the Faculty of Science and with external partners. You will contribute to the teaching and the innovation of Radboud's popular theoretical machine learning and biophysics courses, and possibly contribute to other core undergraduate physics subjects taught at the Faculty of Science. You will supervise students' research projects at the Bachelor's, Master's and PhD levels. Finally, you will contribute to the effective administration of Radboud University and the acquisition of research funding, and will strengthen the role and visibility of Radboud University in the international Theoretical Biophysics landscape.

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The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour of Radboud University seeks to appoint a Professor of Theoretical Biophysics and Machine Learning. The Donders Institute is a world-class research institute, housing more than 700 researchers devoted to understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of the human mind/brain. Research at the Donders Institute focuses on four themes:

Language and Communication

Perception, Action, and Decision-making

Development and Lifelong Plasticity

Natural Computing and Neurotechnology.

We have excellent and state-of-the-art research facilities available for a broad range of neuroscience research. The Donders Institute fosters a collaborative, multidisciplinary, supportive research environment with a diverse international staff. English is the lingua franca at the Institute.

You will join the academic staff of the Donders Center for Neuroscience (DCN) - one of the four Donders Centers at Radboud University's Faculty of Science. The Biophysics Department is part of the DCN. Neurophysicists at DCN mainly conduct experimental, theoretical and computational research into the principles of information processing by the brain, with particular focus on the mammalian auditory and visual systems. The Physics of Machine Learning and Complex Systems Group studies a broad range of theoretical topics, ranging from physics-based machine learning paradigms and quantum machine learning, via Bayesian inference and applications of statistical mechanics techniques in medical statistics, to network theory and the modelling of heterogeneous many-variable processes in physics and biology. The group engages in multiple national and international research collaborations, and participates in several multidisciplinary initiatives that support theoretical biophysics and machine learning research and teaching at Radboud University.

Radboud University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion, and encourages applications from all sections of society. The university offers customised facilities to better align work and private life. Parents are entitled to partly paid parental leave and Radboud University employees enjoy flexibility in the way they structure their work. The university highly values the career development of its staff, which is facilitated by a variety of programmes. The Faculty of Science is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and as such encourages applications from women and minorities.

Radboud University

We want to get the best out of science, others and ourselves. Why? Because this is what the world around us desperately needs. Leading research and education make an indispensable contribution to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all. This is what unites the more than 24,000 students and 5,600 employees at Radboud University. And this requires even more talent, collaboration and lifelong learning. You have a part to play!

We offer

Additional employment conditions

Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

Would you like more information?

For questions about the position, please contact Ton Coolen, Professor at +31 24 361 42 45 or ton.coolen@donders.ru.nl.

Practical information and applications

You can apply until 25 February 2022, exclusively using the button below. Kindly address your application to Ton Coolen. Please fill in the application form and attach the following documents:

The first round of interviews will take place around the end of March. You would preferably begin employment on 1 September 2022.

This vacancy was also published in a slightly modified form in 2021. Applicants who were rejected at that time are kindly requested not to apply again.

We can imagine you're curious about our application procedure. It offers a rough outline of what you can expect during the application process, how we handle your personal data and how we deal with internal and external candidates.

We drafted this vacancy to find and hire our new colleague ourselves. Recruitment agencies are kindly requested to refrain from responding.

The rest is here:
Associate / Full Professor of Theoretical Biophysics and Machine Learning job with RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN | 278686 - Times Higher Education (THE)