Nature Science

BEAUTIFUL PROGRESS FOR SCIENTIFIC QUESTS

Courtesy of Roche. Inflammation of T and B cells.

Many scientific quests carry the torch for centuries -- even millennia. But there are significant advances happening right now in a few of the most noble quests: finding the cure for cancer, life on Mars, self healing, and creating new kinds of DNA.

QUEST: CURE CANCER

On May 15th, 2014, the Mayo Clinic published a report detailing the complete remission of incurable cancer in a female patient. The cure was a disease that was once very common: the measles virus.

The team of doctors used a genetically engineered version of the virus to fight their 49 year old patient’s multiple myeloma, a white blood cell cancer affecting bone marrow.

Administered at high dose, the virus set about destroying the cancer cells, leading to complete remission and no tumors for 9 months. Currently, 11 months after treatment, the patient is still cancer free.

The larger effects of this step will be discovered soon, a trial for 20 patients has been approved for September, 2014. In addition, the measles virus, as well as other viruses, will be studied for their potential to cure other types of cancer.

Roche is developing RG7598, which they hope will aid in the fight against Multiple Myeloma.

QUEST: FIND LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS

Are we alone? Since we first contemplated the origins of life on our planet the natural question emerged: is there life elsewhere? Mars is showing signs that it once supported life, about 4 billion years ago, according to data collected recently by Curiosity, NASA’s Mars rover.

Professors Scott McLennan and Joel Hurowitz, lead researchers at Stony Brook University, co-authored 6 papers detailing these discoveries recently in the journal Science.

Studying an area called Yellowknife Bay, thought to be a dried up lake bed, the scientists determined that the area would have had the correct mix of elements to support life similar to that found on primordial earth.

"We have determined that the rocks preserved there represent an ancient geological environment that was habitable for microbial life," says McLennan.

QUEST: SELF-HEALING

What if humans could cause living cells to produce medicines or chemicals needed in everyday life through genetic engineering? The first step in this quest was just taken. Scientists have created new genetic letters in DNA, which may enable living cells to become personal pharmaceutical labs.

All DNA on earth, except for this new creation, contains 4 chemical letters: (A) Adenine, (C) Cytosine, (G) Guanine, and (T) Thymine. They bind in a specifically determined set of pairings: AT or CG. These pairs create 20 amino acids, that serve as our biological building blocks.

A team of scientists at the Scripps Research Institute developed an engineered Escherichia coli bacterium that is able to copy DNA that contains unnatural genetic letters. The new letters, X and Y, create a whole new set of pairing possibilities, which allows for a whole new world.

Floyd Romesberg, of The Scripps Research Institute, led the research effort for more than 15 years. His paper was published on May 7th, 2014 in Nature. His team created a new form of e.coli.

“What we have now is a living cell that literally stores increased genetic information,” says Romesberg.

Experimentation with “test-tube letters” began in 1989, when a team of researchers of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, led by Steven Benner modified forms of cytosine and guanine, thereby modifying DNA molecules.

Romesburg’s team are carrying the work forward. With new letters, new pairs and new amino acids could be produced. And with that, new compounds can be created which can target healing.

“If you’re given more letters, you can invent new words, you can find new ways to use those words and you can probably tell more interesting stories,” Romesburg says.

QUEST: TRAVEL AT WARP SPEED

We want to go move faster. We don’t want limits, like the speed of light. We want to go faster still. Warp speed is what we’ll need if we want to reach new destinations in outer space. Remember Star Trek’s warp drives?

While we haven’t yet figured out how to move faster than light, scientists have been developing the concept of warp bubbles, in which space bends or folds, making the distance between two places shorter.

While it might take anywhere from 20 to 200 years before we can actually use this technology, we are still one step closer to Star Trek becoming reality!

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Photo Credits:

Photo: Courtesy of Roche. Inflammation of T and B cells.
Photo: Courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Measles Virus.
Photo: Courtesy of University of Texas, Houston. Multiple Myeloma.
Photo: Courtesy of the Mayo Clinic. Measles Virus Cells.
Photo: Courtesy of Cancer Viro Therapy. HIV Virus.
Photo: Courtesy of NASA. Curiosity Self Portrait.
Image: Courtesy of NASA. Artists rendition of Mars Curiosity Rover.
Photo: Courtesy of NASA. Yellowknife Bay.
Photo: Courtesy of NASA. Yellowknife Bay area.
Photo: Courtesy of the National Institute of Health. Color added Human Chromosomes.
Image: by Ryan Jeffs. DNA and RNA.
Photo: Courtesy of Pixabay. DNA.
Photo: Courtesy of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. DNA.
Image: by Richard Wheeler. DNA
Image: by FracFx. Artists rendition of warp speed travel.
Image: Courtesy of Air & Space Smithsonian. Warp Speed.
Photo: by Jason Mrachina. “Time Warp.”
Photo: by Mark Sebastian. “Warpspeed Drive By.”