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Recent estimates by the United Nationssay as many as 36.7 million peopleworldwide are known to have HIV.Of these, roughly 1.2 million people are in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These alarming numbers actually grow every year, and adequate treatment let alone a cure still seems a long way off. One of the major reasons thats so isbecause HIV as a disease is something of a tough nut to crack: the virus is capable of hiding itself in latent reservoirs, making it extremely difficult for a permanent cure to be developed.

Theres a glimmer of hope, though: scientists atthe Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM) and the University of Pittsburgh published astudy in the journal Molecular Therapyshowing itspossible to surgically remove HIV DNA from a living animal genome. This is the first time that such a method was demonstrated to be possible, and it could increase the chances of eliminating HIV infection.

The secret is in CRISPR/Cas9, the worlds most efficient and effective gene editing tool, which made it possible to delete targeted HIV-1 fragments from the infected animal tissue genome. CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9)-mediated genome editing provides a promising cure for HIV-1/AIDS, the studys abstract notes. This research built on a proof-of-concept study that the same team of researchers conductedlast year.

Our new study is more comprehensive, LKSOMs Wenhui Hu explained. We confirmed the data from our previous work and have improved the efficiency of our gene editing strategy. We also show that the strategy is effective in two additional mouse models, one representing acute infection in mouse cells and the other representing chronic, or latent, infection in human cells.

The researchers used CRISPR/Cas9 to shut down HIV on three sets of animal models: one performed ontransgenic mice with HIV-1, another with mice acutely infected with the mouse equivalent of human HIV (ecoHIV), and a third group of mice that had human immune cells with latent HIV-1 embedded into their tissues and organs.

In all three animal models, the researchers were able to successfully render HIV inactive via gene editing, reducing the RNA expression of viral genes by up to 95 percent in the first model, and up to 96 percent in the second. For the third model, they were able to remove viral fragments from the latently infected human cells in the mouse organs after only a single CRISPR/Cas9 treatment.

Now, researchers need tomake the treatment more viable for humans:The next stage would be to repeat the study in primates, a more suitable animal model where HIV infection induces disease, in order to further demonstrate elimination of HIV-1 DNA in latently infected T cells and other sanctuary sites for HIV-1, including brain cells, said researcher Kamel Khalili. Our eventual goal is a clinical trial in human patients.

As this is the first time gene editing was demonstrated to work on HIV in animals, this method could prove to be a game changer in treating the elusive virus: its a crucial step in, eventually,creating a cure.

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Scientists Just Surgically Removed HIV DNA From Live Animals - Futurism

In BriefPolit Casillas, a systems engineer from NASA's Jet PropulsionLaboratory, is developing a new type of fabric for use at NASA. Theapplications for future missions will be many, includingprotection, building, and insulation.

One would think NASA was preparing for a some sword fights in space! At least, thats the impression one might get when they see the new armor NASA is developing for the first time. Officially, they are referring to it as a new type of space fabric, one which will provide protection to astronauts, spaceships, and deployable devices. But to the casual observer, it looks a lot like chain mail armor!

The new armor is the brainchild of Polit Casillas, a systems engineer from NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Inspired by traditional textiles, this armor relies on advances made in additive manufacturing (aka. 3D printing) to create woven metal fabrics that can fold and change shape quickly. And someday soon, it could be used for just about everything!

As the son of a fashion designer in Spain, Casillas grew up around fabrics and textiles, and was intrigued by how they are used for the sake of design. Much in the same way that textiles are produced by weaving together countless threads, Casillas prototype space fabric relies on 3D printing to create metal squares in one piece, which are then strung together to form a coat of armor.

In addition to his work with this new space fabric, Casillas co-leads JPLs Atelier workshop, which specialized in the rapid-prototyping of advanced concepts and systems. This fast-paced collaborative environment works with different technologies and looks for ways to incorporate new ones (such as 4-D printing) into existing designs. As Casillas described this concept in a NASA press release:

We call it 4-D printing because we can print both the geometry and the function of these materials. If 20th Century manufacturing was driven by mass production, then this is the mass production of functions.

The space fabrics have four essential functions, which include reflectivity, passive heat management, foldability, and tensile strength. With one side reflecting light and the other absorbing it, the material acts as a means of thermal control. It can also fold in many different ways and adapt to shapes, all the while maintaining tensile strength to ensure it can sustain forces pulling on it.

These fabrics could be used to protect astronauts and shield large antennas, deployable devices, and spacecraft from meteorites and other hazards. In addition, they could be used to ensure that missions to extreme environments would be protected from the elements. Consider Jupiters moon Europa, which NASA is planning on exploring in the coming decade using a lander aka. the Europa Clipper mission.

Here, and on other ocean worlds like Ceres, Enceladus, Titan and Pluto this sort of flexible armor could provide insulation for spacecraft. They could be used on landing struts to ensure that they could change shape to fit over uneven terrain as well. This kind of material could also be used to build habitats for Mars or the Moon like the South Pole-Aitken Basin, where permanently-shadowed craters allow for the existence of water ice.

Another benefit of this material is the fact that it is considerably cheaper to produce compared to materials made using traditional fabrication methods. Under ordinary conditions, designing and building spacecraft is a complex and costly process. But by adding multiple functions to a material at different stages of development, the whole process can be made cheaper and new designs can be implemented.

Andrew Shapiro-Scharlotta is a manager at the JPLs Space Technology Office, an office responsible for funding early-stage technologies like the space fabric. As he put it, this sort of production process could enable all kinds of designs and new mission concepts. We are just scratching the surface of whats possible, he said. The use of organic and non-linear shapes at no additional costs to fabrication will lead to more efficient mechanical designs.

In keeping with how 3-D printing has been developed for use aboard the ISS, the JPL team not only wants to use this fabric in space, but also manufacture it in space as well. In the future, Casillas also envisions a process whereby tools and structural materials can be printed from recycled materials, offering additional cost-savings and enabling rapid, on-demand production of necessary components.

Such a production process could revolutionize the way spacecraft and space systems are created. Instead of ships, suits, and robotic craft created from many different parts (which then have to be assembled), they could be printed out like whole cloth. The manufacturing revolution, it seems, loometh!

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3D Printed Space-Age Chain Mail Is in Development at NASA - Futurism

In BriefA researcher in the U.K. has developed the world's firstsynthetic, soft tissue retina. Because it doesn't contain any hardmaterials, the device should be able to bypass many of the problemsposed by current mechanical implants. Easy on the Eyes

Anyone whos ever had a stray eyelash or a piece of dust land in their eye can attest to the pain even the tiniest foreign object can cause. While this sensitivity is essential for keeping our eyes in working order, it can also be a problem for those with retinal implants.

The retina is a light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye that plays an important role in sight, and damage to it can lead to blindness. For the past few years, retinal implants have been restoring vision for patients with such problems, but those implants have all been mechanical devices, which can wreak havoc on already damaged eyes.

The human eye is incredibly sensitive, which is why foreign bodies like metal retinal implants can be so damaging, leading to inflammation and/or scarring, University of Oxford researcher Vanessa Restrepo-Schild explained in a university news release. To that end, she led a team in creating the worlds first synthetic, soft tissue retina.

The team used lab-created biological tissue for its artificial retina, and because it doesnt incorporate any rigid foreign materials, the device is less likely to cause problems once implanted. A biological synthetic implant is soft and water-based, so much more friendly to the eye environment, explained Restrepo-Schild.

So far, the team has only tested its implant in a lab environment, so the next steps are testing it with living tissues and expanding on its functionality. Restrepo-Schild is optimistic about the future practical uses of her creation: I hope my research is the first step in a journey towards building technology that is soft and biodegradable instead of hard and wasteful.

An estimated 39 million people worldwide are blind, and the Oxford team is just one of many developing bionic eyes to help them regain their vision.

Right now, the only bionic implant approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the United States is Second Sights Argus II. That system requires the implantation of a device comprising an antenna, an electronics case, and an electrode array on the patients eye. That implant works in conjunction with a pair of glasses, a video processing unit (VPU), and a cable worn outside the body to restore some of the users vision.

Other researchers are skipping the eyes altogether in their quest to bring sight to the blind. Monash University professor Arthur Lowerys bionic eyes feed information from a glasses-mounted camera directly into the brain via electrodes. This means it could be used by someone with severely damaged eyes or even no eyes at all.

Beyond helping people with impaired vision, bionic eyes could eventually give superpowers to those who already have no trouble reading the eye chart. Those implants could allow us to see in different light spectrums, give us telescopic sight, or even record what we see and wirelessly upload it to our social networks. The possibilities are endless, and breakthroughs like that of Restrepo-Schild put us one step closer to that age of superhuman sight.

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Researchers Just Found a Way to Create Better Bionic Eyes - Futurism

In BriefNASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have discoveredthe largest wave of ultra-hot gas ever rippling through the Perseusgalaxy cluster. Studying this phenomenon can teach us more aboutthe universe. Great BigWave

Scientists have found a huge wave of ultra-hot gas rippling through the nearby Perseus galaxy cluster. And when we say huge, we mean really freaking giant.

At around 200,000 light-years across twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy researchers suspect its the largest wave ever discovered in the known Universe, and its most likely been rolling through space for billions of years.

The wave is a type of Kelvin-Helmholtz wave, which occurs when two fluids traveling at different speeds move past each other. The most familiar example are the beautiful curling waves that crash over themselves at the beach as a result of wind blowing across the surface of the ocean.

But Kelvin-Helmholtz waves have also been discovered pulsing through our atmosphere, and have even been spotted on other planets and the surface of our own Sun.

Using data from NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory, researchers have now found evidence of the most massive example of one of these waves to date.

The Perseus galaxy cluster is located in the Perseus constellation around 240 million light-years away, and is around 11 million light-years across, made up of a number of galaxies surrounded by a vast cloud of scorching hot gas thats so hot it only glows in X-rays.

While studying X-ray images of the Perseus cluster, researchers saw something odd a strange bay shape that kept appearing without any clear origin.

At first they thought it might have something to do with a black hole in the region, but using data from NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory combined with radio observations and computer simulations, scientists have now discovered that this bay shape is actually a giant wave.

We think the bay feature we see in Perseus is part of a Kelvin-Helmholtz wave, perhaps the largest one yet identified, said lead researcher Stephen Walker, from NASAs Goddard Space Flight Centre.

Based on their computer simulations, the team suggests that billions of years ago, the galaxy cluster was settled, with a cooler central region of gas reaching temperatures around 30 million degrees Celsius (54 million degrees Fahrenheit), surrounded by an area with gas three times hotter.

But then a smaller galaxy cluster seems to have grazed past Perseus, sloshing those two regions together like cream stirred into coffee, creating an expanding spiral of cold gas.

Over the next 2.5 billion years, the researchers predict that the gas spread about 500,000 light-years from the centre of the cluster, creating massive waves that roll around the edges for hundreds of million of years before dissipating.

Perseus is one of the most massive nearby clusters and the brightest one in X-rays, so Chandra data provide us with unparalleled detail, said Walker.

The wave weve identified is associated with the flyby of a smaller cluster, which shows that the merger activity that produced these giant structures is still ongoing.

Getting more insight into how waves in galaxy clusters such as Perseus form and evolve doesnt just help us understand our Universe, it also allows the researchers to get an idea of the strength of the clusters magnetic field.

If it was too weak, the wave would be much bigger than the one we see today. If it was too strong, it wouldnt form at all.

The research has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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A Colossal Wave of Burning Gas Was Just Discovered Rippling Through Space - Futurism

The Age of CRISPR

The past several months have been no less than astounding ones for the CRISPR gene-editing tool. In September, 2016, researchers in Germany discovered a way to use CRISPR to edit out cancer mutations.In November, Chinese researchers used CRISPR technology on a person for the first time. Then, inJanuary if this year, researchers uncovered two distinct anti-CRISPR proteins that could lead to a CRISPR off switch and greater control over the gene editing tool in human subjects.

Now, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have used CRISPR to target cancers command center, increasing survival rates and shrinking aggressive tumors without harming healthy cells in mice. The method targets fusion genes, mutations that develop when two distinct genes combine into a single, hybrid gene one that often leads to cancer. They published their results in Nature Biotechnology earlier this week.

The team transplanted human liver and prostate cancer cells into mice, and then used the CRISPR fusion gene targeting tool to treat them. The control groups treatment targeted fusion genes that werent present in their bodies making it ineffective. Their tumors grew nearly 40 times larger, and spread to other parts of the body in most cases. None of the control group survived the test period.

The treatment for the experimental group targeted fusion genes that were present in their tumors, and the tumors shrunk by up to 30 percentand didnt spread. Most impressively,all of the animals that received the experimental treatment survived to the end of the test representing an increase in survival rate from 0 to 100 percent.

The fact that these fusion genes are genetically unique makes them an easy target for CRISPR, which can target them and replace them with something else. In this case, researchers replace them with genes that kill cancer, ensuring healthy cells stay well something chemotherapy cant do.

While these dramatic results are exciting, they do not necessarily mean that the treatment will be effective in people, and no plans for clinical trials have been announced as of yet. Before the treatment is tested in humans, the researchers hope to improve it. Although the current research demonstratesthat the technique can force the cancer cells into remission, the scientists want totest whether it could entirely wipe the cancer out instead.

This is the first time that gene editing has been used to specifically target cancer fusion genes, Jian-Hua Luo, lead author of the study, said in a press release. It is really exciting because it lays the groundwork for what could become a totally new approach to treating cancer. Other types of cancer treatments target the foot soldiers of the army. Our approach is to target the command center, so there is no chance for the enemys soldiers to regroup in the battlefield for a comeback.

The rest is here:
New CRISPR Technique Targets and Destroys Cancer's Command Center - Futurism

In Brief Sorry, Tesla and Apple fans. The companies have no plans to collaborate any time soon, according to Elon Musk. During yesterday's first-quarter earnings call with investors, the CEO confirmed that Apple isn't interested in working with Tesla at the moment. Highly Unlikely

Back in 2015, an investor made a bold claim that Apple would buy Teslawithin 18 months. Its been more than two years since that prediction was made, and Tesla and Apple are still independent entities and it looks like they will stay that way.

During yesterdays first-quarter earnings call with investors, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared his thoughts on the chances of Tesla working with Apple on an electric car. Yeah, I dont think they want to have that conversation, he said, according to Business Insider. Ive at least not heard any indication that they do.

Musk was reiterating a point he made back in February in an interview with Bloomberg about how a merger with Apple was highly unlikely: Id be very concerned in any kind of acquisition scenario, whoever it is, that we would become distracted from that task which has always been the driving goal of Tesla.

Analysts and journalists have made comments about how a merger or a collaboration with Apple would be beneficial for Teslaand vice versa. Tesla, largely due to Musk, has the innovative mind that Apple seems to sorely lack these days. At the same time, Apple has the earnings and capital thatTesla is arguably in need of.

Hopes for such a pairing, which has the potential to be one of the best combos in the tech industry, have been fueled by Apples recent progress in the autonomous vehicle game. The Cupertino-based company has already received approval to test self-driving vehicles on California roads, which was confirmation that Apple is working on an autonomous car. Tesla is also busy working on its newest electric vehicle, the Model 3, with production well on its way and a final unveiling slated for July.

For now, Apple and Tesla seem content to continue forging their own paths with separate vehicles, but whether those paths will intersect in the future is anybodys guess.

Excerpt from:
Elon Musk Is Setting the Record Straight on Rumors Regarding a Major Tesla Collaboration - Futurism