Show Notes 5 August 2022
Story 1: Genetic heart conditions could be cured with a single shot in the arm
Source: The Guardian Story by Andrew Gregory
Source: SkyNews
- Genetic defects are the cause of half of all heart transplants and are the leading cause of heart death in young people.
- But here’s some great news — Funded by a huge grant from the British Heart Foundation, a team of experts from the UK, United States and Singapore recently announced that they are working to create the world’s first gene therapy cure for genetic heart conditions.
- And what’s really amazing is that this genetic cure would be administered with a single injection in the arm.
- The aim of the research is to cure genetic heart conditions by using precision genetic editing techniques, called base and prime editing, in the heart for the first time to permanently correct, or silence mutant genes that cause these heart problems.
What is CRISPR?
CRISPR is short for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat.” It’s a bit of DNA that scientists first noticed in the immune system of bacteria. That inspired the gene-editing technique that everyone now calls CRISPR. Source: https://www.webmd.com/cancer/guide/crispr-facts-overview
What is base editing?
CRISPR “base editing,” seamlessly changes a single DNA letter; that simplest of all edits may be all that’s required to repair mutations that cause thousands of inherited diseases. Source: https://www.statnews.com/2019/11/06/questions-david-liu-crispr-prime-editing-answers/
What is prime editing?
Prime editing is a potentially significant update to CRISPR gene editing. Prime editing serves as a “search-and-replace” editor for the human genome. Using prime editing, it is possible to directly write new genetic information into a specific DNA site. Anzalone, et al. (2019) used it to edit human cells through targeted insertions and deletions to efficiently correct the primary genetic causes of sickle cell disease and Tay-Sachs disease.
- Not much in the way of scientific details were disclosed, but so far animal studies have already shown the genetic editing techniques work, with human clinical trials expected in the next five years.
Story 2: MIT is using microparticles to create “self-boosting” vaccines
Source: MIT News Story by Anne Trafton
Link: https://news.mit.edu/2022/self-boosting-vaccines-0713
- As we all know, most vaccines, from measles to Covid-19, require a series of multiple shots to be fully vaccinated.
- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently announced that they have developed a one-shot vaccine alternative.
- This profound medical technology advancement involves using injected microparticles that can be tuned to deliver their vaccine payload at different time points – effectively offering “self-boosting” vaccines.
- Here’s how it works:
- The microparticles [which resemble tiny, microscopic coffee cups sealed with a lid] are made of a porous biocompatible material.
- The microparticles loaded with a vaccine are injected under the skin and can be designed to release their contents at different time points.
- The microparticles remain under the skin until the vaccine is fully released [and boosted] and then they break down, just like dissolvable sutures.
- The range of benefits this breakthrough brings is amazing. For example, this could be a gamechanger for vaccinations in regions where people don’t have frequent access to medical care.
Story 3: New experimental “open fan” jet engine in development
Source: CNN
Link: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airbus-cfm-a380-propulsion-demonstrator/index.html
Source: Simplefyling.com Story by Pranjal Pande
Link: https://bit.ly/3voyEJk
Source: Wikipedia
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propfan
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qTikLKAnzs&t=6s
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zdZBArq5gA
- Late last month at the Airbus and CFM International Air Show held in England researchers with GE Aviation and Safran announced plans to use a huge Airbus A380 [the world’s largest passenger jet] to demonstrate a remarkable “open fan” hybrid electric engine which could help cut carbon emissions by up to 20%.
- The experimental engine looks like a super sleek and stylish version of an old-school propeller engine.
- It features an open rotating set of 12 short, twisted propeller fan blades in front, and a set of counter rotating blades behind the front propellers.
- There’s a lot of mechanical engineering technical details to explain how this works, but in the simplest terms the front twisted rotating blades pull air back, with the rear blades manipulating the thrust airflow generated by the front set.
- For a great, and detailed explanation, check out the second video link provided here in the notes! There’s so much more to the story!
- Although not the first such engine in aviation history, this is the latest cutting-edge version of what is called a “propfan” or open rotor engine.
- The design is intended to offer the speed and performance of a standard turbofan jet engine you see on commercial aircraft today, with the fuel economy of a turboprop.
- In addition to producing far less carbon emissions than today’s jet engines, the GE Aviation and Safran development team claims it offers reduced mechanical complexity, weight, and noise.
- The team says the new technology could be ready by the mid-2030s and would first be used for single-aisle aircraft like the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.
Story 4: NASA is developing a water-hunting rover to support moon bases
Source: Slashgear.com Story by Georgina Torbet
Source: NASA
Link: https://www.nasa.gov/viper/rover
- One of the greatest challenges for supporting a long-term moon base is securing a water supply.
- Recent research has found that there is water on the moon, especially in the form of ice in craters around the south pole.
- To locate this water NASA is developing its “VIPER” rover, which to me looks like a droid right out of a Star Wars movie!
- VIPER, which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, will someday be sent to search around the moon’s south pole, hunting through craters for evidence of ice there.
- Because of the dust covering the moon called regolith — the rover’s wheels and suspension system are being designed to handle traveling over and through craters.
- Should it encounter extremely fluffy soil, VIPER can lift each of its wheels independently, almost like marching feet, and use them to dig into and sweep along the surface.
- As the rover drives across the lunar surface, VIPER will use the Neutron Spectrometer System to indirectly detect potential water present in the soil, up to 3 feet below the surface, for further investigation.
- Where Neutron Spectrometer System finds a promising concentration of hydrogen underground – potentially ice – the rover will deploy its 1-meter drill [that’s about 3 feet, four inches long] to extract an ice sample to test.
- What is a neutron spectrometer? Okay, this is way over my head!!! But this is an instrument used to determine the energies of neutrons and the relative intensities of neutrons of different energies in a neutron beam. Source: https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/neutron+spectrometer