By combining CRISPR technology with a protein designed with artificial intelligence (AI), it is possible to awaken individual dormant genes by disabling the chemical “off switches” that silence them. Researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle describe this finding in the journal Cell Reports.

A new study has found that artificial intelligence (AI) apps helped protect small and medium-sized businesses against many of the risks that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic - yet only a quarter of small firms currently use them.

The research, undertaken by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and published in the journal Information Systems Frontiers, surveyed 317 small and medium sized firms based in London.

Use of the drug verapamil to treat Type 1 diabetes continues to show benefits lasting at least two years, researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. Patients taking the oral blood pressure medication not only required less daily insulin two years after first diagnosis of the disease, but also showed evidence of surprising immunomodulatory benefits.

A research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has successfully used specific enzymes to destroy the genetic information of SARS-CoV-2 directly after the virus penetrates the cell. The findings could serve as the basis for a therapy to treat COVID-19.

Our genome contains building instructions for proteins and other molecules. In order for these to be produced by the cell, a kind of transcript of these building instructions must first be created, which takes the form of so-called RNA molecules.

A new study using serum from human blood samples suggests neutralizing antibody levels produced by two-dose mRNA vaccines against the original and early variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus wane substantially over time, and offer essentially no protection against the omicron variant.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim lives around the world, dairy scientists may have a surprising role to play. In a new report published in the Journal of Dairy Science®, scientists from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) and Glanbia PLC Research and Development (Twin Falls, ID, USA) have collaborated to investigate the antiviral properties of cow milk protein against variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the illness.

The largest study to date has confirmed the link between the gut microbiome and the response to cancer immunotherapy therapy for melanoma.

The study is published today in Nature Medicine and co-ordinated by King’s College London, CIBIO Department of the University of Trento and European Institute of Oncology in Italy, University of Groningen in the Netherlands and funded by the Seerave Foundation.