Category Archives: Transhuman News

Are Our Political Beliefs Encoded in Our DNA?
Are Our Political Beliefs Encoded in Our DNA? - created at http://goanimate.com/

By: DhaRa Shukla

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Are Our Political Beliefs Encoded in Our DNA? - Video

TUESDAY, Oct. 1 (HealthDay News) -- An international team of scientists has identified 48 new genetic variants associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study says.

The findings bring to 110 the number of genetic variants linked to MS and offer new insight into the biology of the progressive neurological disease.

The genes pinpointed in the new study underline the central role played by the immune system in the development of MS and show significant overlap with genes known to be involved in other autoimmune diseases, according to the study, which was published online Sept. 29 in the journal Nature Genetics.

The International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium included 193 investigators in 13 countries. They analyzed DNA from more than 29,000 people with MS and nearly 51,000 people without the disease, making it the largest MS study ever undertaken.

Although there are now 110 genetic variants known to be associated with MS, each variant individually confers only a small risk of developing the disease. Collectively, these genetic variants explain about 20 percent of the genetic component of MS, the researchers said.

The new findings are "a major step forward," according to study co-leader Jacob McCauley of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

"Describing the genetic underpinnings of any complex disease is a complicated but critical step. By further refining the genetic landscape of multiple sclerosis and identifying novel genetic associations, we are closer to being able to identify the cellular and molecular processes responsible for MS and therefore the specific biological targets for future drug treatment strategies," he said in a University of Miami news release.

MS affects more than 2.5 million people worldwide, according to the news release. It causes inflammation and damage to the central nervous system that leads to problems with mobility, balance, sensation and thinking, depending upon where the damage occurs.

The risk of developing MS is higher among people who have a family history of the disease. Research in twins and adopted people has suggested that this increased risk is primarily due to genetic factors.

-- Robert Preidt

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New DNA Discoveries Advance MS Research

DNA intro
I was bored so I started to play around but then I liked what I had made so I made it DNA #39;s temporary intro. Hmm...something is missing tho -_-

By: Victomofamurdera

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DNA intro - Video

Method uses linear-DNA -- compatible with standard cell enzymes -- to process signals and produce outputs

A team of researchers from the Univ. of Washington (UW), theCalifornia Institute of Technology (CalTech), the Univ. of California (UC) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) have come up with a "toolbox" which they say represents the most promising DNA based computer network yet.

The basic idea of a DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) toolbox is to take inputs -- small strands of DNA or microRNA (micro-ribonucleic acid) -- perform a series of displacement reactions on "Gate" strands, and selectively put out a set of desired outputs that can be used to activate man-made molecules to deliver drugs, turn on sensors, or feed into other DNA networks.

The attractiveness of making DNA computers is that the tools to preserve and replicate your network are already on hand -- in the various cellularnucleases, ligases, topoisomerases, helicases, and polymerases that the cell uses to processes DNA. Thus future DNA computers composed of inputs (sensors, delivered drug molecules) and outputs (releasable drug packages, selective protein transcription) can be made to be self-repairing and programmable.

The latest work builds on an earlier 2007 paper published inScience by the authors. It uses a DNA displacement approach (like most DNA computer efforts), which implements a basic set of logic "gates" for the DNA computer as a series of DNA reactions.

Among the many proposed architectures for strand displacement computation, ours is unique in that it relies exclusively on linear, double-stranded DNA complexes (processed by nicking one of the strands). Because this structure is compatible with natural DNA, we are able to produce our computational elements in a highly pure form by bacterial cloning. Thus, we bypass the practical limitations in the length and purity of synthetic strands.

I think this is appealing because it allows you to solve more than one problem. If you want a computer to do something else, you just reprogram it. This project is very similar in that we can tell chemistry what to do.

Of course there's also a downside (or upside, depending on your perspective) which the authors don't mention. The ability to build DNA computers which generate responses that can interact with the cell's natural DNA and biomolecules is highly weaponizable. For example future researchers could make a DNA computer that lay dormant for some given amount of time, then triggered cells to become aggressive cancer tumors, and then release yet more factors that encouraged those deadly tumor cells to metastasize.

The current work was published in the journal Nature, one of academia's most prestigious peer-reviewed journals. It was funded in part by a $2M USD grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to UW electrical engineering professorEric Klavins, a co-author on the work.

Sources: Univ. of Wash., Nature [abstract]

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New DNA Computer Opens Door to Future Medical Breakthroughs

2 October 2013 Last updated at 09:52 ET

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BBC reporter Gabriel Gatehouse: "Men in the white overalls, shoe coverings and masks are carrying out the forensic analysis on bodies"

Relatives of some of the people missing after the attack on a Kenyan shopping mall have come forward for DNA testing.

The police made the request after the discovery of body parts.

The four-day siege by Somali Islamist militants left 67 people dead; a further 39 are still missing.

The BBC's Robert Kiptoo says there have been conflicting reports about whether all the bodies have been retrieved from the Westgate shopping centre in the capital Nairobi.

At least three bodies were brought to Nairobi's morgue on Tuesday, he said.

Al-Shabab, a Somali group linked to al-Qaeda, said its militants had stormed the shopping centre in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on 21 September in retaliation for Kenya's military involvement in Somalia.

Our correspondent says at least four families came to Nairobi's main morgue on Wednesday morning. Three of them were families of soldiers who died in the attack.

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DNA tests for Kenya mall relatives