Biomedical engineers at Tufts University School of Engineering have developed tiny lipid-based nanoparticles that incorporate neurotransmitters, which can help to carry drugs, large molecules, and even gene editing proteins across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and into the brain in mice. The researchers believe the new neurotransmitter-derived lipidoids—or NT-lipidoids—could overcome many of the current limitations encountered in delivering intravenously administered therapeutics…
Temporary loss of smell, or anosmia, is the main neurological symptom and one of the earliest and most commonly reported indicators of COVID-19. Studies suggest it better predicts the disease than other well-known symptoms such as fever and cough, but the underlying mechanisms for loss of smell in patients with COVID-19 have been unclear. Now, an international team of researchers led by…
The intricate, tightly wound structures of chromosomes condense about two meters of DNA so the complete instruction manual for growing a human can be tucked inside a cell nucleus just 10 microns wide. “This is like fitting something the height of the Empire State Building into a space no wider than a spaghetti noodle,” said Huy Quoc Nguyen, Ph.D, a research…
New discoveries about the disruption of condensates in the neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome provide insights into how cells compartmentalize chromosomes as well as new potential paths for therapies. Scientists have, for many years, conceptualized the cell as a relatively free-flowing space, where–apart from the organization provided by specific cellular structures–molecules float freely, somehow ultimately ending up in the right place…
As cancer cells evolve, many of their genes become overactive while others are turned down. These genetic changes can help tumors grow out of control and become more aggressive, adapt to changing conditions, and eventually lead the tumor to metastasize and spread elsewhere in the body. MIT and Harvard University researchers have now mapped out an additional layer of control…
Researchers at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, in collaboration with the global health non-profit PATH and pharmaceutical company GSK, have discovered two markers of immunity in response to the RTS,S/ASO1 malaria vaccine that correlated strongly with protection from infection. The ability to identify a successful immune response to the RTS,S/ASO1 vaccine could greatly reduce the amount of…
Psoriasis, a chronic skin condition that causes itchy, red, scaly patches, afflicts more than 8 million Americans and 125 million people worldwide. Small molecule-based drugs like steroids can penetrate the skin to treat the condition, but they can cause skin irritation and thinning and their efficacy can decrease over time. Antibodies that target specific inflammation-related molecules associated with psoriasis have…
Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health today announced the launch of Vesigen Therapeutics, a startup company that aims to overcome the challenge of delivering next-generation therapeutics, such as gene-editing complexes, RNA molecules, and other large proteins, to intracellular targets in specific tissues of interest. Through an exclusive license agreement with Harvard, Vesigen will develop…
The rod-like spike proteins on the surface of SARS CoV-2 are the tip of the spear of the COVID-19 pandemic. The spikes bind to human cells via the ACE2 receptor and then dramatically change shape. They jack-knife, folding in on themselves to fuse their own membrane with the membrane of our cells. And that opens the door to coronavirus infection.…
A new technology that combines high throughput imaging and machine learning could speed discovery of drugs to fight tuberculosis, which for generations has killed more people worldwide than any other disease caused by a single agent—4,000 people every day. Current treatment requires multiple drugs for at least six months and sometimes years, and antibiotic resistance is growing, increasing urgency for…