BIOSINGULARITY

Mapping the ‘fountain of youth’ (not an April Fool's)

2013-04-01T15:35:03Z

Telomerase catalytic subunit, TERT (credit: Emskorda/Wikimedia Commons)

Tantalizing. Singularityish. Of course another word for cells that divide forever is "cancer."

A Whole-Cell Computational Model Predicts Phenotype from Genotype

2012-08-22T17:57:27Z

http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674%2812%2900776-3

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/science/in-a-first-an-entire-organism-is-simulated-by-software.html?_r=2&smid=fb-share

This is an example of how digital media computing lessons can be applied to viral vaccines and therapy

2011-12-01T18:00:00Z

http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/microsoft-research-spammers-act-just-hiv-virus-avoiding-filters-120211

https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/collaboration/stories/hiv_research_za.aspx

Spammers avoid filters in a fashion similar to HIV avoiding T cells. I think this is an expression of complexity.

We need enabling simulation technology.

2011-11-25T18:15:00Z

We are quickly developing the ability to sequence a personal genome for $1000.00. The issue is, how to analyze the data? I think we need to boldly leapfrog current computing capabilities and brute force a distributed simulation of core immune system behavior, enabled by genomic data. And then see what it predicts given a trigger. And then compare that to reality. We'll hone in on something. WATSON CAN HELP.

W. Richard McCombie, a professor of human genetics at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, examining DNA samples.

"The field of genomics is caught in a data deluge. DNA sequencing is becoming faster and cheaper at a pace far outstripping Moore’s law, which describes the rate at which computing gets faster and cheaper.

The result is that the ability to determine DNA sequences is starting to outrun the ability of researchers to store, transmit and especially to analyze the data."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/business/dna-sequencing-caught-in-deluge-of-data.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1323108899-oVQgik/APCraoabeqLKFSQ

Researchers do precise gene therapy without a needle

2011-10-19T00:57:07Z

L. James Lee

L. James Lee and his colleagues at Ohio State University have successfully inserted specific doses of an anti-cancer gene into individual leukemia cells to kill them without a needle. The technique uses electricity to “shoot” bits of therapeutic biomolecules through a tiny channel and into a cell in a fraction of a second.

They have dubbed the method “nanochannel electroporation” (NEP).

“NEP allows us to investigate how drugs and other biomolecules affect cell biology and genetic pathways at a level not achievable by any existing techniques,” said Lee, the Helen C. Kurtz Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and director of the NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for Affordable Nanoengineering of Polymeric Biomedical Devices at Ohio State.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/researchers-do-precise-gene-therapy-without-a-needle

A faster, higher-quality way to reprogram cells into stem cells

2011-10-18T21:28:49Z

A faster, higher-quality way to reprogram cells into stem cellsWellcome Trust Sanger Institute researchers have announced a new technique to reprogram human cells, such as skin cells, into stem cells.

The researchers said their process increases the efficiency of cell reprogramming 100-fold and generates cells of a higher quality at a faster rate.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-faster-higher-quality-way-to-reprogram-cells-into-stem-cells

Scientists make near-instantaneous DNA analysis possible

2011-10-05T16:37:17Z

Mechanical engineer Reg Beer (right) and electronics engineer Gary Johnson test a new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) instrument developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that can process biological samples in less than three minutes. Photos: Jacqueline McBride/LLNL

"Thanks to work by Reginald Beer and his team of scientists and engineers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), sub-three-minute amplification of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is now possible."

http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/10/Life-Sciences-Technology-Scientists-Make-Near-Instantaneous-DNA-Analysis-Possible/

Proton Communication

2011-09-21T18:17:59Z

Exciting paper out of the Rolandi Lab at University of Washington.
http://www.washington.edu/news/articles/proton-based-transistor-could-let-machines-communicate-with-living-things .

From the paper:

In the body, protons activate “on” and “off” switches and are key players in biological energy transfer. Ions open and close channels in the cell membrane to pump things in and out of the cell. Animals including humans use ions to flex their muscles and transmit brain signals. A machine that was compatible with a living system in this way could, in the short term, monitor such processes. Someday it could generate proton currents to control certain functions directly.

A first step toward this type of control is a transistor that can send pulses of proton current. The prototype device is a field-effect transistor, a basic type of transistor that includes a gate, a drain and a source terminal for the current. The UW prototype is the first such device to use protons. It measures about 5 microns wide, roughly a twentieth the width of a human hair.

“In our device large bioinspired molecules can move protons, and a proton current can be switched on and off, in a way that’s completely analogous to an electronic current in any other field effect transistor,” Rolandi said.

For the gene library.

2011-09-18T18:38:59Z

Singularity project: transfer this color behavior to human epithelial cells. Make it programmable.