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Originally published by Olivia Dimmer, Northwestern University, on November 17, 2023   taRNAs built from an array of IRESs increase reporter gene translation. Credit: Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42252-z A new molecular technology capable of binding to mRNA and regulating gene expression may offer a new avenue for treating diseases caused by haploinsufficiency , or the absence of one functional gene copy, according to a study published in Nature Communications . Messenger RNA, or mRNA , contains instructions for DNA to produce proteins. Many diseases , including cancer and many genetic disorders, result from insufficient gene —and therefore protein—expression, but few strategies exist to correct that kind of dysregulation at a molecular level. The new technology, dubbed "translation-activating RNAs" ( taRNAs ), consists of small molecules programmed to attach to specific mRNA molecules to directly control their translation into proteins,...

Originally published by The Ohio State University on November 13, 2023 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A surprising thing happened when researchers began exploring whether early-life stress compounds the effects of a childhood head injury on health and behavior later in life . In an animal study, stress changed the activation level of many more genes in the brain than were changed by a bump to the head. It's already known that head injuries are common in young kids, especially from falling, and can be linked to mood disorders and social difficulties that emerge later in life. Adverse childhood experiences are also very common, and can raise risk for disease, mental illness and substance misuse in adulthood. "But we don't know how those two things can interact," said senior study author Kathryn Lenz , associate professor of psychology at The Ohio State University . "We wanted to understand whether experiencing a traumatic brain injury in the c...

Originally published by University of Nottingham, on November 8, 2023 Saccharomyces cerevisiae, SEM image. Credit: Mogana Das Murtey and Patchamuthu Ramasamy/CC BY-SA 3.0 A UK-based team of Scientists, led by experts from the University of Nottingham and Imperial College London , have completed construction of a synthetic chromosome as part of a major international project to build the world's first synthetic yeast genome . The work, which is published in Cell Genomics , represents completion of one of the 16 chromosomes of the yeast genome by the UK team, which is part of the biggest project ever in synthetic biology ; the international synthetic yeast genome collaboration. The collaboration , known as " Sc2.0 " has been a 15-year project involving teams from around the world (UK, US, China, Singapore, UK, France and Australia), working together to make synthetic versions of all of yeast's chromosomes . Alongside this paper, another nine publications h...

Originally published by Anna Megdell, University of Michigan, on November 2, 2023 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Metabolites called nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA and can impact cancer's sensitivity or resistance to chemotherapy and radiation in brain cancer. Findings from researchers at the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center , published in Cancer Discovery, show how a specific nucleotide metabolite , called GTP , controls responses to radiation and chemotherapy in an unexpected way. "We learned that if you increase a cell's GTP levels , it makes it really resistant to radiation or chemotherapy . Lowering GTP levels , the cell becomes much more sensitive ," said Daniel Wahl , M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of radiation oncology at Michigan Medicine and senior author of this paper. Researchers have long known that levels of nucleotides like GTP control how fast DNA damage is repaired , which in turn controls sensitivity to ther...