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    Home > Biochemistry News > Biotechnology News > New coronavirus research becomes the biggest winner, CRISPR-like enzymes and the gold standard for masks

    New coronavirus research becomes the biggest winner, CRISPR-like enzymes and the gold standard for masks

    • Last Update: 2021-10-01
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Biochemist Katalin Karikó helped develop a method to deliver mRNA to cells without triggering unnecessary immune responses
    .

    The progress of the new coronavirus has won the most profitable award in the scientific community

    Among the 5 "Breakthrough Awards" valued at US$3 million, 2 awards were won for technologies to fight COVID-19
    .

    One of the awards went to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who discovered how to deliver mRNA into cells and developed a new class of vaccines
    .


    The other award was won by three chemists whose sequencing technology has been used to quickly track SARS-CoV-2 mutations: Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman of the University of Cambridge, UK, and Pascal Mayer of the French research company Alphanosos


    Hidetoshi Katori of the University of Tokyo and Jun Ye of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado won the Fundamental Physics Prize for inventing the optical lattice clock , This is an extremely accurate timing device
    .

    Takuro Mochizuki of Kyoto University in Japan won the mathematics award for his expanded understanding of algebraic structure, namely the complete D module
    .

    A treasure trove of gene-cutting enzymes found in microorganisms

    By exploring the evolutionary origin of an enzyme used in the CRISPR genome editing system, the researchers discovered more than 1 million other potential editors lurking in the microbial genome
    .

    They discovered a new editing enzyme in a protein family called IscB
    .


    These proteins are thought to be the ancestors of the CRISPR enzyme Cas9


    The researchers found that the DNA responsible for encoding the IscB protein is usually located near the DNA of a class of RNA molecules, which they call ωRNA
    .


    They found that some IscB proteins can cut DNA at positions specified by the ωRNA sequence, just like Cas9 does with guide RNA


    The team continued to study another protein family called TnpB, which is considered to be the ancestor of another dna slice Crispr-related enzyme Cas12
    .


    They found that some of these proteins can also cut DNA under the guidance of ωRNA


    Feng Zhang, the first author of the study and a molecular biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, said the discovery may provide further tools for genome editing
    .

     

    The new coronavirus mask has passed the biggest test to date

    A gold standard clinical trial concluded that wearing a mask can reduce the spread of COVID-19, which supports the results of hundreds of previous observations and laboratory studies
    .

    Those who object to the requirement to wear masks pointed out that there is a lack of relevant randomized clinical trials because such trials randomly assign participants to a control group or an intervention group
    .


    But the latest findings are based on a randomized trial involving nearly 350,000 people in rural areas of Bangladesh


    "This should really be the end of the debate," said Ashley Styczynski, a co-author of the study and an infectious disease researcher at Stanford University in California
    .

    Styczynski and her colleagues first developed a strategy to promote the wearing of masks, and adopted measures such as health workers reminding people to wear masks in public places
    .


    This ultimately doubled the use of masks, from 13% in controlled villages to 42% in villages that encouraged the use of masks


    The team found that the number of symptomatic cases in the treatment village was lower than that in the control village
    .


    The decrease was 9%, but the researchers said that the real risk reduction may be much greater, partly because they did not conduct SARS on people who have no symptoms or who do not meet the World Health Organization's definition of the disease.


    The study reduced the risk of surgical masks by 11%, and the risk of cloth masks by 5%
    .


    Laboratory experiments further confirmed this finding.


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