Volume 42 Issue 11, November 2024

Amyloid deposits are present in the brains of cognitively impaired individuals, but also accumulate throughout the body. Some biotechs aim to keep these misfolded proteins in check to treat a range of diseases, including heart failure, ALS and Alzheimer’s disease.

A strategic move by lawyers acting for Doudna and Charpentier is the latest twist in the battleground for CRISPR–Cas9 technology.

Europe’s first field trial of gene-edited vines began in northern Italy on 30 September 2024. Developed by EdiVite, a spinoff from the University of Verona, these Chardonnay vines have undergone gene inactivation to enable them to better defend themselves against downy mildew, an oomycete disease. The trial is being conducted on university land, with plans to expand to another site in the Veneto region. Researchers aim to gather initial data by 2025, with the potential for experimental winemaking in 2026.

A synthetic auxin improves the growth of adventitious roots in various plant species.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in the solid tumor microenvironment enter a partially dysfunctional state called T cell exhaustion. Interleukin (IL)-10-producing CAR T cells retain their metabolic fitness, resist T cell exhaustion and display unprecedented antitumor activity indicated by high cure rates and durable responses in mice. Clinical studies of IL-10-producing CAR T cells are underway.

We developed synthetic serum markers that can be expressed in the brain but are transported into the blood, enabling minimally invasive monitoring of gene expression in the brain with a simple blood test.

Expression profiles of single live cells are generated from Raman microscopy using deep learning, enabling us to track expression dynamics along cell reprogramming or differentiation.