Looking for up to date developments in life science? This Week in Brief brings you the latest news.
Google have announced the release of an AI co-scientist. Built using Gemini 2.0, AI co-scientist is designed to accelerate hypothesis generation, aiding development of novel research proposals. To date, validation has been performed in anti-microbial resistance, drug repurposing and novel drug target discovery. Google
A long-term follow up of patients with neuroblastoma who received GD2-directed CAR-T cell therapy has been published in Nature Medicine. One patient who had relapsed disease is now reported to be cancer free for 18 years, the longest reported remission with CAR T cell treatment to date. Nature Medicine
The human and murine versions of NOVA1, a protein responsible for gene activity in the brain, differ only by a single amino acid. Altered vocalisation patterns were observed when the human variant was inserted into mice, indicating NOVA1 may influence the development of spoken language. Nature Communications
Recent research has highlighted that starvation of Salmonella may contribute to poor response to antibiotics. Bacteria that aren’t growing are less exposed to these toxic agents and single cell studies revealed that ‘hyper-resilient persisters’ were less resistant when nutrients were available. Nature
At almost three years old, a child who began treatment in the womb for spinal muscular atrophy shows no sign of the genetic disorder. A question from their parents regarding whether they could start the treatment of Risdiplam prenatally prompted an individual FDA approval and paves the way for larger studies. The New England Journal of Medicine
Researchers have found that aging and longevity may be more greatly influenced by the environment than by an individual’s genetics. Polygenic risk scores were analysed for 22 major diseases and found that genetics was more determinant in dementia and various cancers while a person’s environment more greatly influenced heart, lung and liver disease. Nature Medicine
A bacteriophage which targets commensal bacteria has been engineered to induce production of a serine protease inhibitor to treat colitis in situ in a mouse model. The authors also used this method to target obesity-induced inflammation by engineering phage to release a protein associated with satiety. Nature Biotechnology
Scientists have discovered that cardiac muscle expresses ‘sweet taste’ receptors. TAS1R2 and TAS1R3, responsible for detecting sweetness on the tongue, induced increased muscle contraction and calcium flow when stimulated by aspartame. These receptors were more abundant on individuals with heart failure, indicating a role in cardiac pathology. Biophysical Society
Splicing errors that commonly occur in tumour cells have been found to produce aberrant peptides, offering a novel type of neopeptide for targeting by T cell immunotherapies. In this study, tumour-wide expression of these splicing errors were detected, resulting in neopeptide display by cancer cells and immune-stimulated destruction. Nature
A new method has been developed to combat low compliance and reporting biases in dietary questionnaires. Metagenomic Estimation of Dietary Intake (MEDI) utilises metagenomic analysis of human stools and was able to provide reliable metabolic information about nutrient uptake even when food-derived DNA was in low abundance. Nature Metabolism
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