Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUmSfKQDoQz/

Genetically modifying bacteria using AI-refined DNA leads to production of vaccines with 8-fold higher immunogenicity in a time-frame even 5 times shorter than even the speedy mRNA technology. Microbiologists at the University of Virginia and Duke University now report this proof-of-concept in the journal Vaccines.

This novel approach utilizes inactivated bacteria programmed with synthetic DNA instructions to produce new, highly effective vaccine antigens in about 3 weeks. The DNA design is guided by AI protein-structure modeling. The resultant vaccines are stable at refrigerator temperatures. They are inexpensive to produce costing less than $1/dose.

In contrast, mRNA vaccines require more complex manufacturing and ultra-cold storage. They require about 3 months or more to go from design to a test-ready product.

Additional preclinical testing is needed before human trials, but the researchers predict that this approach could transform how the world responds to future pandemics—by making vaccines faster, cheaper, and more accessible to everyone…..someday soon.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260128/UVA-Health-scientists-pioneer-a-new-way-to-create-vaccines-far-more-quickly-than-ever-before.aspx

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/14/1/14

#vaccines #bacteria #AI #mRNA

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUmR81-DQm_/

Cancer research may be entering a new, animal-free era thanks to a novel organ-on-a-chip platform that mimics how human tumors behave. Nanoscientists at the University of Arizona have developed this tumor micro-environment and utilized it for testing the effects of radiation therapy on lung cancer. They report the result in he journal iScience.

Their technology is termed ASTEROIDS which is short for Apparatus to Simulate Tumor Environment and Reproduce Organs in an Interactive and Dynamic System. This system mimics the human tumor microenvironment including blood-flow forces, cell-to-cell communication, immune interactions, and mechanical stress. It accurately reproduces how tumors respond to treatment and offers a more human-relevant method for testing cancer therapies.

This study focused on lung cancer, but the ASTEROIDS platform can be adapted to any solid tumor. It supports the tenants of the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 which encourages reducing animal testing in favor of human-based lab models.

Though used to test radiation therapy in this study, ASTEROIDS will also turbocharge drug development and improve how well lab testing can predict therapy outcomes……someday soon.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-3d-chip-platform-enables-animal.html

https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)02497-6?_returnURL=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2589004225024976?showall=true

#cancer #radiation #testing #animals #organonchip

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUmRDXNDmVN/

A pill that uses a genetic trick to reset your body’s internal clock forward could eliminate jet lag more effectively than light therapy or melatonin. A team of researchers at several Japanese universities have developed an experimental oral compound and report their discovery in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Their discovery, named Mic-628, works by activating a core clock gene known as Period1, or Per1, which establishes the timing of sleep, wakefulness, and metabolism. Unlike existing approaches that rely on precisely timed light exposure, Mic-628 advances the body clock no matter when it is ingested.

Using a mouse model to simulate eastward jet travel, a single dose of Mic-628 successfully shortens jet-lag recovery from seven to just four days. Most significantly, this drug shifts both the brain’s master clock and peripheral clocks in organs like the lungs and maintains body sync.

The researchers note that advancing the body’s clock forward is not only important for eastward air travel but also for night-shift work. Current approaches using melatonin give inconsistent results.

While Mic-628 has not yet entered clinical trials, it could become a new class of “smart circadian drugs” that effectively treat jet lag, shift-work sleep problems, and other disorders caused by body-clock misalignments…..someday soon.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-jet-lag-scientists-oral-compound.html

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2509943123

#jetlag #circadianrhythm #nightshift #melatonin