Key insight about mitochondrial replacement therapy

Mitochondrial donors should be carefully selected to avoid transmission of harmful mutations, outlines a new report. Mitochondrial replacement therapy offers hope for women genetically predisposed to pass on mutant mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses inside nearly every cell of the body. Mitochondrial DNA is passed only from mothers to their children. Mutations can cause a range of potentially fatal disorders affecting organs with high-energy demands such as the heart, muscle and brain.

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Virus-inspired delivery system transfers microscopic cargo between human cells

Scientists have developed blueprints that instruct human cells to assemble a virus-like delivery system that can transport custom cargo from one cell to another. The research is a step toward a nature-inspired means for delivering therapeutics directly to specific cell types within the body.

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CRISPR used for first time to correct clotting in newborn and adult mice

CRISPR/Cas9, a powerful genome editing tool, is showing promise for efficient correction of disease-causing mutations. For the first time, researchers have developed a dual gene therapy approach to deliver key components of a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene targeting system to mice to treat hemophilia B. This disorder is also called factor IX deficiency and is caused by a missing or defective clotting protein.

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Lack of sleep costing US economy up to $411 billion per year

Lower productivity levels and the higher risk of mortality resulting from sleep deprivation have a significant effect on a nation’s economy. Sleep deprivation increases the risk of mortality by 13 per cent and leads to the U.S. losing around 1.2 million working days a year. Increasing nightly sleep from under six hours to between six and seven hours could add $226.4 billion to the U.S. economy.

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Preschoolers' expectations shape how they interpret speech

When we listen to people speak, we aren’t just hearing the sounds they’re making, we’re also actively trying to infer what they’re going to say. Someone might misspeak, forget a word, or be drowned out by background noise, and yet we often get their meaning anyway. This is because we use our past experience with language to hear what we expect them to say. Adults tend to manage this kind of “noisy channel” communication fairly easily, but new findings suggest 4- and 5-year-old children show the same adaptive ability.

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Brain training video games help low-vision kids see better

Studies going back several years have shown that playing action video games (AVG) can help improve visual acuity. A new study by vision scientists has found that children with poor vision see vast improvement in their peripheral vision after only eight hours of training via kid-friendly video games. Most surprising to the scientists was the range of visual gains the children made, and that the gains were quickly acquired and stable when tested a year later.

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Method for storing vaccines at room temperature

Several simple and inexpensive techniques make it possible to store antiviral-vaccines at room temperature for several months. This discovery could make a difference in inaccessible areas and developing countries where maintaining cold-chain transportation of vaccines is complicated and expensive.

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