Category: 7. Science

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Researchers at five British universities have launched the Synthetic Human Genome Project (SynHG) with an initial grant of approximately $12.6 million from Wellcome, the U.K.’s largest biomedical research charity. Unveiled on Thursday, the five-year effort is led by molecular biologist Jason W. Chin at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and aims to assemble an entire human chromosome, base by base, inside the lab.

Writing a genome

Instead of tweaking existing DNA with tools such as CRISPR, SynHG will attempt to “write” long stretches of code before inserting them into cultured human skin cells to study how chromosome architecture drives health and disease. The project builds on Chin’s earlier success constructing a fully synthetic E. coli genome.

The laboratory playbook blends generative-AI sequence design with high-throughput robotic assembly, allowing scientists to plan and assemble millions of DNA bases. Patrick Yizhi Cai of the University of Manchester, who oversees these methods, says the approach “leverag[es] cutting-edge generative AI and advanced robotic assembly technologies to revolutionize synthetic mammalian chromosome engineering.”

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Why experts are cautious

Geneticist Robin Lovell-Badge of London’s Francis Crick Institute emphasized the importance of understanding not only the scientific potential but also the societal values and risks involved. He warned that as research progresses, there is the possibility of creating synthetic cells that could, if used in humans, lead to tumors or produce novel infectious particles if not carefully designed. Lovell-Badge recommended that any engineered cells should include safeguards, such as inducible genetic kill switches, to ensure they can be eliminated from the body or targeted by the immune system if needed.

Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Educational Trust, echoed the need for transparency and public engagement, highlighting that synthesizing human genomes is controversial and requires researchers and the public to be in active communication. Norcross welcomed the project’s built-in social science program, which surveys communities across Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe and the Americas as the science unfolds and is led by social scientist Joy Yueyue Zhang, as a way to ensure that public interests and concerns are considered from the outset.

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Road ahead

Over the next five years, the consortium will iterate design–build–test cycles, aiming first for an error-free synthetic chromosome representing roughly 2% of human DNA. Alongside the laboratory milestones, the team plans to release an open-access toolkit covering both the technical and governance lessons learned.

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New drugs that target ‘zombie’ tuberculosis (TB) cells are now a step closer, thanks to a new study led by the University of Surrey, published in Scientific Reports.

Many dangerous pathogens, including the bacteria that cause TB, are capable of generating dormant, drug-tolerant cells, often described as ‘zombies’. These persister cells can survive intense antibiotic treatments by essentially playing dead. Once the drugs are gone, they ‘wake up’ and can trigger recurring, and often deadly, infections. Eliminating these zombie-like cells currently requires months of multi-drug therapy, and even then, treatment often fails, fueling relapse and the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

In the study, the Surrey team exposed a vast library of over 500,000 genetically modified TB bacteria to two commonly used antibiotics – rifampicin and streptomycin. The exposure was extended long enough that the remaining survivors were primarily persisters. By analyzing the survivors, the researchers pinpointed genes whose disruption significantly reduced the number of surviving zombie cells.

These critical genes were found to perform various roles: some weakened the protective bacterial cell wall, others activated a form of bacterial self-destruction, and still others disrupted the cell’s metabolic balance. Each of these pathways offers a potential strategy for designing new drugs that could wipe out persister cells more rapidly and effectively.

The next phase of research will focus on developing novel therapeutics that mimic these gene functions, paving the way for shorter, more successful TB treatments and a powerful new weapon in the global fight against AMR.

Tuberculosis really is the forgotten pandemic. It killed 1.3 million people last year, mostly from completely drug-sensitive strains. The problem isn’t always resistance – it’s persisters. These are a tiny group of phenotypically drug-resistant bacteria that survive antibiotic treatment and can go on to cause treatment failure.

What we found is that persister survival depends on the antibiotic used. The mechanisms aren’t shared as previously thought; they’re drug-specific. That changes how we think about targeting persisters and could shape how future TB treatments are designed.”

Dr. Suzie Hingley-Wilson, co-corresponding author of the study and Senior Lecturer in Bacteriology at the University of Surrey

Mutations in some of the genes identified in the study have been found in TB strains from patients who do not respond to treatment. This overlap suggests that the mechanisms observed in the lab reflect what is happening in real infections and may help explain why some patients relapse even when the bacteria are not resistant to the antibiotics.

Professor Johnjoe McFadden, study lead from the University of Surrey, said:

“The mechanisms involved in persistence are probably the biggest mysteries in microbiology. Their solution could revolutionize treatment for some of the most challenging diseases to treat, such as tuberculosis (TB). This groundbreaking research could lead to new drugs that target persisters, shortening treatment regimens and reducing both treatment costs and the burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).”

The study was supported by the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Octopuses have many amazing abilities and characteristics; they have huge brains and can solve puzzles; their ink can disguise them and disorient attackers; and their ancestors are thought to be about 330 million years old. There are about 500 million neurons in octopus arms, and the suction cups on those arms may hold as many as 10,000 sensory cells each. Scientists have now shown that octopus arms can move over the seafloor to taste the stuff that’s there, and determine whether it is safe to eat. The arms can sense the biochemicals in microbial communities, and figure out whether they are harmless or dangerous. The findings have been reported in Cell.

Microbes surround and coat many things in our world, even underwater. Marine microbiomes are dynamic, changing in response to environmental conditions constantly. They release different chemicals that reflect their surroundings, and the octopus can sense some of them, like those that grow on eggs or crabs. This enables them to understand their habitat, explained first study author Rebecka Sepela, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University.

This work aimed to decipher some of the sensory capabilities of octopuses, which can taste by touching. The researchers observed saltwater tanks containing California two-spot octopuses, which are enclosed by a lid that is fastened on with velcro and weighted down by bricks. “We’ve had them open their tanks and get out,” noted senior study author Nicholas Bellono, a Harvard Professor.

When fiddler crab shells or octopus eggs were placed in the tanks, there were strong reactions from the octopuses. They are able to eat blindly, foraging in the dark by relying on the sensory information that comes in through their suction cups and arms. The octopuses quickly ate live fiddler crabs, which they typically enjoy, but opted not to consume decaying crabs. Octopus moms also cared for healthy eggs, while rejecting dead or infertile ones.

The stuff that was put in the tanks, whether it was good or bad crabs or eggs, hosted significantly different microbiomes. Live crabs didn’t carry many microbes, while decaying crabs had tons of different kinds of bacteria. Rejected eggs were found to host spirillum-shaped bacteria, which were absent from healthy eggs.

A genetic analysis revealed even more about the microbiomes, and the molecules they emit. The investigators identified these compounds and tested their impact on octopus receptors.

This work showed that some microbial compounds elicited a response from certain octopus receptors. 

When one of the compounds that is a product of the spirillum-shaped bacteria was put onto a fake egg and placed in the octopus tank, it was briefly groomed, then rejected by the mother octopus.

This study also opens up new questions about how widespread this type of interaction might be.

“There is a lot more to be explored,” said Bellono. “Microbes are present on almost every surface. We had a nice system to look at this in the octopus, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening across life.”

Sources: Harvard University, Cell

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Early risers are in for a celestial treat on July 5, when Venus appears as a bright ‘morning star’ alongside the magnificent Pleiades open star cluster in the eastern sky just before dawn.

Stargazers in the U.S. can see Venus rising around 3 a.m. local time, with the Pleiades star cluster visible as a smudge of light under dark sky conditions less than 7 degrees to Venus’ upper left. To estimate that distance, hold a clenched fist at arm’s length; it spans roughly 10 degrees of sky.

The cosmic duo will be visible for around two and a half hours before the glare of the rising sun hides the Pleiades from view. While the cluster is known to contain a multitude of blue-white stars, our naked-eye view of the Pleiades from Earth is largely dominated by its seven brightest members : Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Electra, Taygete, Merope and Maia. The light from these stars is best viewed away from city lights and becomes easier to detect when the star cluster is in the periphery of your vision, where the cells that excel at night vision are at their densest.

The seven brightest stars can be picked out using a pair of 10×50 binoculars, while a telescope with an aperture of 4 inches or greater will reveal more of the cluster’s thousand-strong stellar population.

Venus, meanwhile, is stunning to view with the naked eye alone, shining at magnitude -3.9. However, pointing a telescope with an aperture of 2.4 inches or greater with a magnification of 50x or more will allow you to pick out its moon-like phases, according to telescope-maker Celestron.

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But wait, there’s more! The ice giant Uranus is also present in the sky on July 5, positioned almost directly between Venus and the Pleiades. However, its relatively dim magnitude of +5.8 makes it incredibly challenging to spot with the naked eye. Remember, magnitude is the system astronomers use to keep track of how bright an object appears in our night sky. The lower the number is, the brighter the object. The human eye is capable of spotting objects brighter than magnitude +6.5 in dark sky conditions.

To see Uranus’ tiny aqua disk you’ll need a telescope with an 8-inch aperture. However, even then it will appear as little more than a blue point of light hanging against the starfield beyond.

Editor’s Note: If you capture a picture of Venus with the Pleiades and want to share it with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Long believed to be a single, globally distributed species drifting freely across the open ocean, the bluebottle – also known as the Portuguese man o’ war – has been revealed to be a group of at least four distinct species, each with its own unique morphology, genetics, and distribution.

Uncovered by an international research team led by scientists at Yale University, the University of New South Wales, and Griffith University, the genetic discovery is being heralded as something of a revelation to the marine biology community.

It was made when researchers began sequencing the genomes of 151 Physalia specimens from around the world. Now published in the journal Current Biology it found “strong evidence of reproductive isolation” among five genetic lineages.

“The genetic data clearly show they’re not only different, they’re not even interbreeding despite overlapping ranges,” said Professor Kylie Pitt, a professor at Griffiths University. 

The bluebottle is uniquely suited to long-distance travel, using its gas-filled float and muscular crest to catch the wind and sail the sea surface. Using an integrative approach, the team matched genomic lineages with four distinct physical forms identified from thousands of citizen-science images submitted to iNaturalist.org.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time the suggestion that the bluebottle was in fact four morphological separate species has been made. The idea was originally proposed in the 18th century and again in the 19th century but dismissed each time.

Using today’s advances in science, however, the suggestions have indeed been verified by modern genomic evidence.