New CRISPR tool, How Alzheimer's kills brain cells and AI that translates chicken talk

September 28

This week we discover a new more accurate and safer CRISPR gene editing tool. We investigate a new method for writing in water (not underwater but actually in the water itself) and we find out how Alzheimer’s disease kills brain cells. Finally we meet an AI that claims it can translate what chickens are saying.

New CRISPR tool

Beam Therapeutics from the UK have announced the first patient trials for a new CRISPR gene editing technique. Called base editing it is more specific than the original CRISPR technique.

The most common form of CRISPR uses the Cas9 enzyme to cut both strands of the DNA double helix at a particular site. The cell will then mend the cut, sometimes inserting or deleting a few DNA letters (or bases). This can disable the gene which is required to remain active for some gene editing applications. The technique does not allow control of exactly how the cell repairs its’ DNA and resulting DNA sequences can not be predicted accurately.

Base editing only cuts one strand of the DNA. The base editor then converts DNA bases at the break site to a particular type. This gives greater control over the edited sequence and less cell death from damaged DNA. The technique may also allow multiple edits in the same cell. Multiple edits with CRISPR Cas9 is risky as breaking both strands of DNA multiple times may cause the DNA to not properly stitch back together. This has the potential for genomic chaos.

The first patient has been treated using immune cells with 4 base edited genes. This equipped cells to better target and destroy tumors. The approach is being used to help participants tame a difficult to treat form of leukemia. This may serve as a gateway to more complex edits.

Attempts at Base editing were first reported in 2016. To have already reached clinical trials is amazingly quick. It is expected that drug regulators in the US and Europe will approve the first CRISPR Cas9 therapy for sickle cell disease. That decision will provide a basis for the work that needs to be completed for base editing therapies to be approved.

How do Brain Cells die from Alzheimer's

Teams in the UK and Belgium have worked out how Alzheimer’s disease kills brain cells. This has been a mystery and an area of research for decades. It is the loss of brain neurons that lead to the symptoms of Alzheimer's including memory loss.

When you look inside the brains of people with the disease there is a build up of amyloid and tau proteins. These are abnormal proteins. The team believes that the abnormal amyloid starts to build up between the spaces between neurons. This leads to brain inflammation which the neurons dislike. That causes a change to the neurons internal chemistry.

Tangles of tau appear and the brain cells start producing a specific molecule, MEG3, that triggers cell death by necroptosis. This is a normal process in the body where we purge unwanted cells as fresh ones are made. The brain cells survived when the team were able to block MEG3.

The answers were discovered when human brain cells were transplanted into the brains of genetically modified mice. The animals had been programmed to produce large quantities of abnormal amyloid.

There has been some recent success in the development of drugs that strip amyloid out of the brain. These are the first treatments to slow the destruction of brain cells. The discovery could lead to a range of new drugs that block the MEG3 molecule however it will take years of research. The expression of MEG3 is lost in cancer cells. MEG3 acts as a growth suppressor. There will be many implications from the use of a drug that suppresses MEG3 so it will be a long and difficult path to treatments that have limited side effects.

Writing in Water

Humans have been writing in some form for 30,000 years. A team from the University of Mainz in Germany have developed a way to write in water, not underwater but actually in water.

Most writing methods use the same approach, a line is deposited or carved out in a shape that gives meaning that can be read. If we use a solid substrate the written figures hold their shape. That is not the case for fluids.

The team needed to devise a means of writing into a fluid. This method would have to be robust enough to counter the rapid dispersion of drawn lines. The pen would have to ensure that it didn’t stir up lots of turbulence as it moved through the fluid.

The solution was to put the ink directly into the water. The team used a microbead made from an ion exchange material as a pen. The pen measured from 20 to 50 microns in diameter. The bead is so small relative to the reservoir of “ink” it doesn’t generate vortices or disturbances in the fluid.

The bead writes by altering the PH of the water, attracting ink particles to those areas. It is then possible to “write” a letter by tilting the water bath so the bead moves in the correct trajectory to trace out a letter or character. The initial water bath used to write in was smaller than a $1 coin.

The work is very much a proof of principle. I am still left wondering why though. However if the purpose of this research confuses you, wait till you read the next story.

AI that understands Chickens talking

A team at the University of Tokyo have claimed to have figured out how to translate the clucking of chickens. The team developed an AI capable of interpreting the various emotional states of chickens including hunger, fear, anger, contentment, excitement and distress.

The technique that they used is called Deep Emotional Analysis Learning. The team worked with eight animal psychologists and veterinary surgeons to understand the various emotional states of chickens. They analyzed 80 birds by recording over 200 hours of vocalizations. The data was fed into an AI with emotional states tagged and categorized. The AI was able to subsequently identify the emotional states of animals based on the new chicken noises.

The team hopes to be able to adapt the AI to other animals to provide insight into animal welfare in industrial settings. I have my doubts about the veracity of the input data and we probably don’t need an AI to tell us that the chicken would probably prefer not to be eaten.

Paying it Forward

If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.

If you have any questions or comments please comment below.

I would also appreciate it if you could forward this newsletter to anyone that you think might be interested.

Till next week.