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Archive for the ‘Blinding People with Science’ Category

The Rules of Immunity: What Decides T Cell Fate

Posted in Blinding People with Science, Medicine, Nutrition and Health, tagged , , on 02/27/2025|

T cells are positioned at the frontline of the body’s immune system to fight infection, cancer, and autoimmune disease. While different subtypes of T cells exist, how these cells take their different forms has remained elusive. 

Now, a multi-institutional team of researchers led by Yale School of Medicine (YSM) has added clarity to the complex, dynamic molecular interactions that occur in the human immune system. In a new study, the researchers have identified one of the levers that controls the fate of T cells and what subtype they transform into. Their findings were published recently in the journal Science.

“Researchers often think of T cells as falling into different buckets—T cells for infection or T cells for cancer or autoimmunity,” said Nikhil Joshi, PhD, associate professor of immunology at YSM and senior author of the study. “We want to have a more holistic view of this process. T cells all start at the same place, and we wanted to understand the rules that control how T cells change in response to the molecular signals they see as they mount a defense.”

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Researchers Solve the Mystery of Tiny Ant Queens

Posted in Blinding People with Science on 04/01/2024|

Researchers identify two supergenes in one ant species that controls the number and size of queens in the colony

Headshot of a Formica cinerea queen. Attribution: Giulia Scarparo.

Ants are fascinating insects. The colony is sustained through complex social dynamics, with each member — the queen, males and workers (sterile females) — contributing to the greater community. While not common to all ants, some species add complexity to this dynamic with the addition of rather small queens. 

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside tackled why these additional queens are present by focusing on complex genetic structures, called supergenes, in the community. These supergenes control the origin and duplication of the petite queens in one particular ant species. The results of their study are available in the December issue of the journal Current Biology.

“We were intrigued by the tiny queens,” said senior author Jessica Purcell, associate professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Riverside. “It’s a great system (multiple queen ant colonies) to study the evolution of supergenes, which exist in many types of organisms.”

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Skills Gap Could Hinder Advances in Cell and Gene Therapies

Posted in Blinding People with Science on 10/31/2023|

The current workforce lacks the skills to move these biological treatments through the regulatory and production pipeline, a new report finds.

Cell and gene therapies offer great promise to treat rare and debilitating diseases. In 2023, the European Commission approved Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics’ exa-cel, a CRISPR therapy for β-thalassemia and sickle cell disease. The same therapy is up for possible approval by the FDA in December. This agency is also scheduled to review nine additional cell and gene therapies (CGT) that address type 1 diabetes, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), metastatic melanoma, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Despite the positive steps forward, Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) published a report in March that found the sector’s workforce is lacking in technical skills, such as development and manufacturing. The workforce is also deficient in key areas of production, like artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, the report stated, as well as quality control and assurance analytical development. ARM cautioned that if this trend persists, it could threaten the sector’s ability to reach its full potential. 

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Fish Heads, Fish Heads: For Biosurfactant Production

Posted in Blinding People with Science, Food on 09/19/2022|

Photo by Stephen Ausmus.
  • Biosurfactants are compounds produced by some bacteria that replicate the properties of petroleum-based surfactants.
  • While many research studies have explored different bacteria grown on different medium, fish waste is proving to be a viable option to grow microbes for industrial-scale biosurfactant production.
  • The Scottish start-up company, Eco Clean Team, has partnered with a researcher at the University of St. Andrews to develop a pilot project for scaling biosurfactant production with fish oil from the local aquaculture industry.
  • While many hurdles remain, the biosurfactant industry and fish peptone industry are both on the upswing.

In 2010, Deep Water Horizon released over 130 million gallons of oil, the equivalent to 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools, into the Gulf of Mexico. Twenty years earlier, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground in Alaska, releasing 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. 

Oil spills harm marine plants and animals, and render seafood unsafe to eat. Environmental remediators apply different techniques, including skimming and burning, to remove oil pollution from the water’s surface; however, synthetic dispersants created using petrochemicals, paradoxically, are the best means of clean-up. They reduce the opportunity for the contaminant to reach the shoreline by dispersing the oil and breaking it up into smaller droplets that are easier for microbes to consume. However, research shows synthetic surfactants are often toxic to marine organisms, changing their behavior, physiology, and reproduction patterns. These adverse effects raise concerns about which is worse for the environment — the dispersants applied to break up an oil slick or the oil itself. 

Synthetic surfactants are a common class of molecules found in laundry and dishwashing detergents, among other household products. They are ubiquitous in our lives, yet they rarely garner the negative attention of an oil spill, because they are typically unseen. Although, in many instances synthetic surfactants are more pervasive and insidious to the environment. 

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