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Figure 1: Three different non-genetically encoded scaffolds regulate cellular responses. The interactions between them are normally kept in check to ensure that cells remain healthy and functional, with arrows indicating positive interactions and dotted lines with a bar at one end representing inhibitory events. The Z-RNAs expressed from the genome will cause inflammatory cell death when interferon induces high levels of ZBP1 (as indicated by the scarlet shading). That response eliminates virally infected cells, other aged cells that no longer function normally, and those inflamed cells that support the growth of malignancies.

Cellular scaffolding: Crowdsourcing cellular responses in health and disease

In this article, Dr Alan Herbert discusses how different types of cellular scaffolds interact and impact the risk of diseases, citing the example of Z-RNAs pushing cells to inflammatory states in tumors and autoimmune conditions, setting the stage for new therapeutics.

A century of NAD+ insights drives aging science and solutions innovations

Dr. Rebecca Crews from Renue By Science, LLC, outlines a century of NAD+ insights driving aging science and, innovative solutions and much more.

Protecting the human epigenome with nutritional epigenetics intervention programs

Dr Renee J. Dufault, Executive Director at the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute, explains the significance of nutritional epigenetics in understanding the impact of nutrients and dietary chemicals on gene expression patterns, as well as their role in the development of conditions such as autism and ADHD.
3d Render DNA Molecule Helix, Biotechnology, Molecular structure Concept (Depth Of Field)

Healthy aging: A novel therapy to reverse age-related damage

What if we could turn back the clock on age-associated dysfunctions by using a therapy that not only treats symptoms but acts to correct the underlying pathology and restores cells to normal function? Lori A. Birder and Edwin K. Jackson from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, explain how this could be a possibility.

Flipons: The discovery of Z-DNA and soft-wired genomes

Alan Herbert, Founder and President of InsideOutBio, discusses alternative DNA conformations and understanding of their biological functions.
Figure 1. Gene expression regulated by tissue-specific regulatory elements/enhancers

How the dark genome enlightens the molecular mechanisms of diseases

In this article, Antoinette van Ouwerkerk and Salvatore Spicuglia from INSERM highlight the significance of regulatory variants within the non-coding genome – often referred to as the ‘dark genome’ – in influencing gene expression and disease.
Figure: Generation of engineered heart tissues (Left) and a cardiac organoid (Right) derived from iPSCs. Left: Scale bar: 500 μm Right: White: Troponin T2 (cardiomyocytes), Green: GFP (fibroblasts), Red: Fibronectin, Blue: Nuclei. Scale bar: 50 μm - treatments for cardiac ailments

The role of stem cell-derived tissues in novel treatments for cardiac ailments

Curbs on animal testing mean human tissues derived from induced pluripotent stem cells offer a promising platform in discovering novel treatments for cardiac ailments.
Cellular therapy. 3d illustration

The ethical and legal challenges of cell donation for brain organoid research

Ethical and legal concerns raised by the use of human biological materials, especially cells from adult donors and foetal tissues, must be thoroughly examined.
Microscopic preparation, tissue plant

What imaging reveals about engineered endosymbionts

Ashley V. Makela and Christopher H. Contag from the Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering, walk us through watching living therapeutics in action, including what imaging reveals about engineered endosymbionts.

The different facets of biodiversity

Professor F. Guillaume Blanchet from Université de Sherbrooke explores the various aspects of biodiversity and the challenge involved in monitoring it.
Still image of highly dynamic chromatin (red) interacts with Arc pucta (green). Shown is a small detail of a neuronal nucleus imaged by high-resolution microscopy. Notice how finger-like extensions of the chromatin transiently visit Arc pucta. The movie is sped up 10 times.

Arc: A new target for treating alzheimer’s disease

Antonius M. VanDongen, Associate Professor from Duke University, walks us through Arc, a new target for treating Alzheimer’s disease.
Alternative flipon conformations compared to Watson and Crick DNA are displayed in the left panel. Flipons offer a new way to program the genome

RNA and DNA flipons in health and disease

Flipons are the next step in DNA research. What they are, their role in DNA and RNA coding, their impact on medical science, and their relation to the immune system are discussed here.
DNA sequencing gel run science and data genomic genetic analysis background abstract pattern.

Understanding thermolabile protecting groups for nucleic acid-based drugs

Serge L. Beaucage investigates thermolabile protecting groups for the amine functions of purine and pyrimidine deoxyribonucleosides for the development and implementation of synthetic DNA sequences as nucleic acid-based drugs.
molecular structure digital concept

The idea of self-organisation in biology and its critics

Using the example of Alan Turing’s paper on morphogenesis, Ute Deichmann at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev explores self-organisation in biology.
Bacteria and viruses illustration

Shrouded in genomic heterochromatin are ancient viral-like elements that could jump

Host defences operate to prevent ‘ancient viruses’ from ever jumping but, in cancers, cells lose multiple layers of ‘epigenetic’ control, and this can lead to the awakening of jumping or ‘retrotransposition’ of ancient viruses.
doctor worried about research

Information overload and the ossification of immunological research

Peter Bretscher, Faculty in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Saskatchewan questions whether there is a way of fostering resilience in immunological research.
Global image

Open Science and Research Infrastructures provide the foundation and pillars necessary to tackle global...

COVID has highlighted the importance of Open Science and research infrastructures to accelerate the impact of scientific research.
sunburn on a man

Part 4: Scientific sunburn & skin cancer

In this last of a four part series, Chanda Siddoo-Atwal, President and Primary Biochemist of Moondust Cosmetics Ltd, explores the potential of the plant compound, resveratrol, as a cancer chemopreventive agent in the context of sunburn & skin cancer.
chromosome cells

Satellite DNA arrays barcode chromosomes to regulate genes

In this piece, Dr Helen Rowe summarizes how arrays or strings of multi-copy satellite DNAs can barcode chromosomes to regulate cell fate, by acting...
Long structure of the DNA double helix in depth of view.

What are the possibilities of DNA and RNA sequences?

Serge L. Beaucage, Supervisory Research Chemist at the Food and Drug Administration discusses his work with DNA and RNA sequences and the groundbreaking impact this technique could have.

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