From Cancer Discoveries to Climate Change

New Cancer Preventing Vaccine Put to the Test

Cancer, the disease that infects almost 2 million people per year, and takes the lives of over six-hundred-thousand people per year, has been studied by so many scientists over the years, who have tried to find anything to prevent those from receiving the deadly disease. Vaccines to prevent cancer caused by viruses (such as hepatitis B and C virus, which can lead to liver cancer, and human papillomavirus which can lead to cervical cancer) have been created, because they can target the viruses I just mentioned. Yet the majority of cancers are caused by certain gene changes, not by viruses.

Lynch syndrome is a disorder that causes many types of cancer; a new trial sets out to test a vaccine for those suffering from the disease. The vaccine will target neoantigens (protein on cancer cells formed when mutations in tumor DNA occur), however other researchers are testing different approaches to non viral cancer vaccines including tumor antigens (molecule such as a protein only present on cancer cells), just a singular antigen (molecule that causes an immune response), or a large number of antigens.

Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez and his team will test a vaccine made of viruses carrying DNA for 209 frameshift (nucleotide bases inserted or deleted in groups not multiples of three) neoantigens found in the tumors of those with Lynch syndrome. The vaccine will be developed by the company Nouscom for treatment in addition to a drug that will trigger the body's immune system in other similar cancers. In the first test of 12 patients, 7 of the patients' tumors shrunk. The next test will take place in the following months, where 45 people with Lynch syndrome have volunteered. Although the process to get this vaccine to function in its intended way, and then get it approved will be long, the potential effects it could have on cancer patients is unrivaled.

J. Kaiser. New generation of cancer-preventing vaccines could wipe out tumors before they form. Science. April 7, 2022. https://www.science.org/content/article/new-generation-cancer-preventing-vaccines-wipe-tumors-form.

The Power to Regenerate Cells in the Heart Muscle Has Been Discovered

Adult human hearts are unable to regenerate cells and thus are unable to repair themselves after injury. So, researchers from the University of Houston set out to solve this problem: by looking at mice, they discovered a technology that can both repair cells in the heart muscle and even go beyond that to regenerate those cells after experiencing a heart attack. The researchers reproduced 15 times the heart cells in just under 24 hours using this technology, and over the course of a month, the mice hearts were back to pretty normal function!

How it works: the technology utilizes synthetic mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) as a means to deliver the proteins in charge of converting DNA to RNA in the mice’s hearts (a process also known as mutating transcription factors). The two factors they used are known as Stemin (which starts the process of stem cell regeneration) and YAP5SA (which encourages organ growth). Together, they increase the rate of replication of cells in the heart muscle, or cardiomyocytes. This technology could be crucial for humans, and I’m excited to see where it takes us.

S. Xiao et al. Mutant SRF and YAP synthetic modified mRNAs drive cardiomyocyte nuclear replication. The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging, 2022; 2 (3): 29 DOI: 10.20517/jca.2022.17.

Can Fungi Help Climate Change??

When you hear the word fungi, you may think of mushrooms or mold, often things seen in a negative light. However fungi is so much more, fungi hold great abilities. Some types of fungi can actually store an incredible amount of carbon underground, stopping the carbon from increasing the temperature of our atmosphere. Other fungi species assist plants’ drought survival rate, help get rid of unwanted bugs, and are capable of feeding crops so chemical fertilizers are unnecessary. To Toby Keirs, fungi may be just what our overheating world needs.

With many largely focusing on what is happening above ground, Dr. Keirs is looking below ground, mapping out fungi and their functions. Her research primarily looks at a fungi known as mycorrhizal fungi, characterized by its symbiotic relationship with plants and its habit of grasping onto surrounding roots. Trees receive necessary nutrients from these fungi, and give the fungi carbon in a type of trade. It’s estimated that mycorrhizal fungi take in 5 million tons of carbon each year, which would otherwise flow to our atmosphere. As such, it will be crucial to protect mycorrhizal fungi. I wonder what kind of impact these fungi will have on climate change in future years.

M.Mcann et al. Unearthing the secret superpowers of fungus. The New York Times. July 27, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/27/climate/climate-change-fungi.html?referringSource=articleShare.

Have MIT Scientists Found a Way to Reverse Climate Change?

Scientists from MIT may have found a way to help or even reverse climate change. Their theory uses film-like silicon bubbles (known as “Space Bubbles”) linked together to serve as a shield from the sun's radiation. The “Space Bubbles” would work by locating themselves at something known as the L1 Lagrangian Point—located right in the middle of the Sun and Earth, a point where stars and earth’s gravity negate—where the bubbles could float freely.

The idea stems from astronomer Roger Angel, who had thought to use a spacecraft as a barrier from the sun. The MIT scientists have considerably improved Angel’s idea. This discovery could be a crucial step towards reversing climate change, but is currently meant to be a backup plan. Thus, we must continue doing our part in the climate crisis, reducing our individual carbon emissions and searching for other solutions/aids.

J. Hawkings. MIT scientists think they’ve discovered how to fully reverse climate change. Yahoo!entertainment. July 9, 2022. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/mit-scientists-think-ve-discovered-180800050.html?guccounter=1.

Groundbreaking Technology: AI Protein Predictions

DeepMind, an Artificial intelligence (AI) lab has created a technology known as AlphaFold, something capable of predicting protein shapes. Within a year of uncovering the technology, DeepMind produced predictions for over 350,000 proteins, a crazy number, spanning the entire human genome and more. Now, the company has disclosed their predictions for pretty much every protein known, a staggering 200 million+. What used to take immense time to figure out, often spending months studying x-rays and using microscopes and other tools, can now be viewed with a simple click.

The ultimate hope behind releasing all the predictions is that research can be sped up—by understanding the shape of a protein to begin with, it is much easier to use the protein, whether that be for understanding diseases, producing new medicine and vaccines, or really anything. DeepMind also wants scientists to be able to investigate more unknown organisms.

Although AlphaFold is unable to predict protein shapes to perfect accuracy, it has proven to be fairly close to discovering the shape physically. AlphaFold is already being used by scientists throughout the world, speeding up their work by months and allowing research to be done that seemed impossible in the past.

C. Metz. A.I. Predicts the Shape of Nearly Every Protein Known to Science. The New York Times. July 28, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/28/science/ai-deepmind-proteins.html?referringSource=articleShare.