Category Archives: Molecular Genetics

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Gizmodo has partnered with the independent market research provider Statista to identify the top universities within 25 fields of study that we believe will define the 21st century. But which academic disciplines did we look at, and why?

The following fields weve identified as Degrees of the Future reflect the technologies, cultural shifts, and challenges that will shape the mid-21st century. Just as the advent of computers, research into genomics, and the advancement of rocketry changed the trajectory of the 20th century, these areas are likely to produce the questions and innovations that will dominate the future careers of todays young students.

Graphic: Gizmodo/Statista

The study of the causes of diseases and their spread will continue to be crucial, particularly as climate change presents us with new health challenges and worsens the threat of pandemics. Epidemiology provides analytic tools to better understand and respond to the urgent problems we are facing now, which will only become more urgent in the future: extreme weather, climate migration, loss of biodiversity, new zoonotic diseases that emerge from human-wildlife contact, extreme social inequity, war and violence, and more, said Alicia Riley, a social epidemiologist at UC Santa Cruz.

Genetics and genomics will pave the way for innovations in health and better understanding of human origins. Theres just no question that 30 years ago, if you would have told me how far genomics would be in 2022, I would have just said, youre out of your mind, theres no way, said Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Back then, I have to admit, I think most of us never thought half the things that are happening now would have happened in our lifetime, let alone within our career. As costs of genetic testing and sequencing go down, the application of genomics across the life sciences will become ubiquitous.

Immunology and virology respectively study the strengths and weaknesses of our bodys immune system, and some of the most dangerous threats to them: viruses. As new viral outbreaks emerge and familiar viruses mutate into new threats, its crucial to know how our bodies can adapt.

Molecular and cellular biology probe the itsy-bitsy processes that make us human, from DNA replication to cell division. It started out to be a pure scientific investigation of some absolutely classic questions in science, said David Baltimore, biologist at Caltech and the Broad Institute and 1975 Nobel laureate. As molecular biology has proceeded, it has developed the ability to modify living organisms and thus has gone from being a pure investigation of the theoretical interest and the scientific interest to being a central capability of our developing society.

Neuroscience will improve our understanding of the most mysterious organ: the brain. Advances in neuroscience could allow us to better treat debilitating neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers and ALS, understand how the brains processes allow us to speak, and even help us test the limits of consciousness. The development of brain-computer interfaces, like Elon Musks Neuralink, will rely on the expertise of neuroscientists.

A degree in artificial intelligence will soon be relevant to just about any field. As the problems humans try to solve become bigger, some of the best solutions may be achieved with AI. AI involves subdisciplines like machine learning and deep learning, both of which are means by which computers can be trained to tackle specific issues. As AI systems become more sophisticated and ubiquitous, it will also be important to consider the ethics of their deployment.

Computer graphics determine how we experience and interact with technology; innovations in this field can literally change how we see the world. Work here will be relevant to a wide range of fields, from entertainment to medical imaging and training. Computer graphics are needed in so many important aspects of our present, connected society, said David Whittinghill, professor of computer graphics at Purdue University. Screen time, something parents and even individuals (rightly) try to monitor and limit, makes up a large portion of a typical persons waking hours. One can debate the merits of this new reality, but their ubiquity and importance is non-negotiable, and it is the prevalence of computer graphics that helps make this possible.

In 2020, a patient in Germany died after hackers disrupted IT systems at a hospital, forcing a delay in her treatment. Ransom-seeking cyberattacks on health care systems have become a growing threat, showing the life-or-death stakes of modern cybersecurity. Its crucial that computers are adequately guarded against bad actors, and the need for secure data storage applies to all entities in the digital age.

As our ability to gather huge amounts of information grows, so does our need to analyze it. Its such a fundamental driver of progress, said Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, a data scientist at Imperial College London and Special Adviser on AI and data protection to the European Commissions Justice Commissioner, when you think about progress weve made in society, in science, by having access to an enormous quantity of data and what it can tell us about the most fundamental questions that we have. Big data means we can tackle big questions in medicine, physics, and engineeringbut it comes with its own ethical pitfalls, including huge threats to privacy.

Games are a reflection of our world and help shape the way we see it. For children, games can be a way of learning fundamental interpersonal and problem-solving skillsand so the way games are designed has a very real impact on society. Theres been a shift away from tangible, mechanical approaches to design and more exploration of aesthetics and vibes and how to design for those, said Sherveen Uduwana, a game designer and project lead on Midautumn and an instructor at Code Coven, an accelerator for marginalized game developers. Many more designers are moving away from trying to create wholly new systems and features and are finding ways to recontextualize pre-existing ideas in a way that feels specific to their game and feels compelling to players.

User experience design affects everyone, from voters trying to understand their ballots to a grandparent trying to video call with their grandchild. Its crucial that these interfaces meet their moment, by making technologies like health care portals and smartphones as intuitive as possible. User experience runs the gamut of trying to make sure that the software technologies that were dealing with are ones that work for and alongside people, said Bridget Blodgett, director of the University of Baltimores Certificate in User Experience. It is meeting human psychology and human physiology where its at, and trying to make sure that our software is actively engaging us in ways that are helpful.

Spaceflight, once the sole domain of government-backed agencies like NASA and Roscosmos, is now a thriving commercial venture, and innovations in rocketry and orbital technology are increasingly coming from private companies. At the same time, space agencies are still creating incredible new tech (like fully electric planes) and launching new missions to explore the solar system like never before. Many of these plans take shape on the scale of decades, so the work of todays students and early career engineers will be influential for generations to come.

Knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics is crucial to understanding some of the most fundamental questions of our universe. We cannot know the origins of anythingfrom galaxies to black holes to life itselfwithout studying the cosmos in detail. New telescope missions are bringing us closer to answers, but it takes time. You need a lot of exploration to find anything that might later be perceived as useful, said Sara Seager, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at MIT. Once in a while, we get a major discovery that changes life as we know it.

Automated systems have long dominated manufacturing, but now theyre moving into customer service, medical care, warfare, and so many other environmentstheyre even controlling the rovers currently driving around Mars. Robotics is extremely important, since it has the potential to help humans to solve complex, dangerous tasks in a more efficient and safer way, said Giuseppe Loianno, director of the Agile Robotics and Perception Lab at New York University. It is certainly the degree of the future, since upcoming graduates will gain unprecedented knowledge and experience at the intersection of several scientific areas, such as robotics, machine learning, communication, and control.

Biomedical engineering will help us go beyond the antibiotics, antivirals, and steroids that dominated last centurys medical arsenal. From drug-carrying nanorobots to genetic and tissue engineering, biomedical engineers build the technologies required for state-of-the-art medicine.

As we move away from fossil fuels, energy engineering will help us find more efficient alternatives and better ways to use existing renewable energy like wind and solar. The field produces innovations in energy production, storage, consumption, and distribution, and will hopefully free us from our destructive reliance on oil and gas.

Environmental engineers help balance human needs and health with the preservation of nature. They will design future infrastructure and systems that are more efficient and less polluting. Their work will result in better waste management and recycling, cleaner cities, and safer industrial sites.

Health informatics broadly describes the streamlining of patient data processes and the administration of health care. Data-driven approaches will overhaul older forms of medical record keeping, to ease the work of medical professionals as well as the patients burden of sifting through paperwork and lab results and tracking their own health history.

Medicine has come so far in 100 yearsand yet many diseases have eluded our best efforts at treatments and cures. Research in cell lines, animals, and computer models steadily progresses into human therapies. New ways of testing and developing drugs should speed the pace of innovation in the coming years.

The study of microorganisms their impacts on human health will help us manage threats and even harness their potential benefits. The bacteria that call us home shape seemingly every aspect of our healthespecially our ability to digest foodand better understanding them could open up new avenues of medical treatments.

Diversity and gender studies are degrees of the future because they are studies in what makes us human and are furthering the conversation about how we see ourselves. Equality and representation are fundamental to progress and innovation across disciplines.

International relations and international security must evolve to address new threats like cyberwarfare, both between countries and within them. Climate refugees, water scarcity, the rise of fascist movements, and other challenges will occupy international relations experts in the coming decades.

Understanding climate change and its effects is crucial for mitigating its immediate impacts. Earths environments are changing as the planet warms due to human industry. Building better climate models will help us understand how these effects will materialize, and other interdisciplinary degrees like data science will help us get there.

Runaway growth and rampant waste cannot continue the way they did in the 20th centuryour natural resources are limited, and environmental destruction is an existential threat to both wildlife and human society. Figuring out how to make our lifestyles sustainable is the biggest challenge of the 21st century.

Cities need to be designed to be more energy efficient, resilient, and affordable. Urban planners today are dealing with challenges that didnt exist 30 years ago, including more frequent and more extreme weather emergencies. Theyre also dealing with the impacts of decisions made long ago, like the prioritization of cars over pedestrians. Urban planning is essential if we want our cities to become more pleasant and safe.

How did Gizmodo determine this years honorees? Check out the methodology or return to the full Degrees of the Future 2022 list.

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These Are the Degrees of the Future - Gizmodo

I am writing in response to a recent letter from Jamie Smith regarding the abuse of children by parents and other adults. Ms. Smith indicates that she is a mandatory reporter with a degree in education. Her letter outlines a litany of problems, both in education and society, and claims the primary cause of child abuse is "unwanted pregnancies." She states that unwanted, abused children are a "burden on society" and offers abortions as a solution, mourning the reversal of the Roe v. Wade decision.

I, too, was a mandatory reporter for 10 years as a school bus driver after my retirement and later as a religious education instructor at my parish. Either position requires training to be able to recognize signs of child abuse with a mandate to report possible abuse.

I am shocked that some of our educators continue to support Margret Sanger's idea that abortion is the solution to rooting out the "human weeds" of society, the children of minorities and the poor. It is these very ideas that are perpetuated by Planned Parenthood and other organizations that profit by taking the lives of unborn children.

Science, such as genetics and molecular biology, have proven that a unique human life begins at conception. Although dependent on the mother's body for initial nourishment and protection, the fertilized egg is not part of the mother's body but a living human being carrying the genes of both parents.

Two wrongs never make a right.

C.E. Glomski

Schaumburg

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Letter: Abortion and social planning - Daily Herald

Postdoctoral Researcher Seaweed Molecular Biology, Physiology and Genetics, Ryan Institute, School of Natural Sciences.NUIG RES 192-22Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates for a full time position as a Postdoctoral Researcher (Plant Molecular Biology & Metabolism) in the Plant Systems Biology research group of Dr. Ronan Sulpice at the National University of Ireland, Galway.This 24 months position is funded by the Marine Institute and is available from September 2022 to end date of August 2024.

Job Description:The successful candidate will combine advanced knowledge of molecular genetics research with large-scale metabolic and phenotypic screening of algae. The experiments will consist of large scale metabolic analyses and growth phenotyping screens, whole genome sequencing of Palmaria strains, and data will be aggregated in a built for purpose database. Traits of focus in the project will include identification of genetic markers to identify best performing strains, both for biomass quality and growth performance.Thus experimental approaches employed in the project will include DNAseq, biochemical assays, phenotyping, and extensive field- and lab-level screening.In addition to the experimental aspect of the project, the successful candidate is expected to contribute to the dissemination of the results, help to report the results, and participate in the daily life of the laboratory.

Duties: What the successful candidate will do attached to the specific post (list /bulletpoint)-Sample seaweeds-Extract DNA, and analyse NGS data generated-perform large throughput metabolic and growth analyses-collaborate with the laboratory team technically and scientifically-write papers/reports-interact with stakeholders-participate to report progress to grant agency-participate in dissemination activities-participate in lab management and co-supervision of students-may act as mentor to co-supervisor of students and have limited teaching hours

Qualifications/Skills required:

Essential Requirements:Track record in molecular biology, ideally with a background on micro- or macro-algae.PhD in Plant or seaweed biology and a good research track record that demonstrates strong capabilities and outputs.knowledge of R for analysis of large datasetsStrong proven (via publications, patents and other research outputs) research recordOrganisational, writing and report/paper drafting skills.Driving licenseSkills in biochemistry (metabolic analyses)

Desirable Requirements:Previous experience in a laboratory from the private sectorHave experience in grant writingEvidence for team working (including supervision and/or lab management experience)

Salary: 39,523- 45,609 per annum pro rata for shorter and/or part-time contracts (public sector pay policy rules pertaining to new entrants will apply).Start date: Position is available from 01/09/2022

Continuing Professional Development/Training:Researchers at NUI Galway are encouraged to avail of a range of training and development opportunities designed to support their personal career development plans.

Further information on research and working at NUI Galway is available on Research at NUI Galway

For information on moving to Ireland please see http://www.euraxess.ie

Further information about the laboratory is available at https://sulpice-lab.com/

Informal enquiries concerning the post may be made to Dr. Ronan Sulpice ronan.sulpice@nuigalway.ie

To Apply:Applications to include a covering letter, CV, and the contact details of three referees should be sent, via e-mail (in word or PDF only) to Dr. Ronan Sulpice ronan.sulpice@nuigalway.ie

Please put reference number NUIG RES 192-22 in subject line of e-mail application.

Closing date for receipt of applications is 5.00 pm 15/08/2022

We reserve the right to re-advertise or extend the closing date for this post.

National University of Ireland, Galway is an equal opportunities employer. All positions are recruited in line with Open, Transparent, Merit (OTM) and Competency based recruitment

'NUI Galway provides continuing professional development supports for all researchers seeking to build their own career pathways either within or beyond academia. Researchers are encouraged to engage with our Researcher Development Centre (RDC) upon commencing employment - see http://www.nuigalway.ie/rdc for further information.

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Postdoctoral Researcher, Seaweed Molecular Biology, Physiology and Genetics, Ryan Institute, School job with NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, GALWAY |...

Soil-dwelling nematodesdepend on their sophisticated sense of smell for survival,able to distinguish between more than a thousand different scents but the molecular mechanism behind their olfaction has baffled scientists for decades.

Now, researchers at the University of Toronto'sTerrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research appear to have solved the long-standing mystery and the implications of their findings stretch beyond nematode olfaction, perhaps offering insights into how thehuman brainfunctions.

Derek van der Kooy,a professor of molecular genetics at the Donnelly Centre in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, led a research team that uncovered the molecular mechanism behind the worms' sense of smell, suggesting that it involves a conserved protein that helps equilibrate vision in humans.

The van der Kooy lab is renowned for its neuroscience research that uses a variety of model organisms, including the nematodeCaenorhabditis elegans.

The researchers' study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) last week.

The worms have an incredible sense of smell its absolutely amazing, saysDaniel Merritt, a first co-author on the paper and recentPhD graduate who workedin the van der Kooy lab.

They can detect a very wide variety of compounds, such as molecules released from soil, fruit, flowers andbacteria. They can even smell explosives and cancer biomarkers in the urine of patients, he adds.

C. elegansare champion sniffers thanks to their 1,300 odorant receptors. As in humans, who possess a mere 400 receptors, each receptor is dedicated to sensing one type of smell but that's where the similarities end.

Human noses are lined with hundreds of sensory neurons, each expressing only one receptor type. When an odorant activates a given neuron, the signal travels deeper into the brain along its long process, or axon, where it is perceived as smell. Smell discrimination is enabled by a physical separation of axonal cables carrying different smell signals.

The worms, however, have only 32 olfactory neurons, which hold all of their 1,300 receptors.

Clearly, the one-neuron-one-smell strategy is not going to work here, Merritt says.

Yet, the worms can discriminate between different smells sensed by the same neuron. Pioneering research from the early 1990s showed that when exposed to two attractive odours, where one is uniformly present and the other is localized, the worms crawl towards the latter. But how this behaviour is regulated at the molecular level remained unclear.

It seems that all the information that is sensed by this neuron gets compressed into one signal, and yet the worm can somehow tell the difference between the upstream components. Thats where we came to it, Merritt says.

Merritt and former masters of science graduateIsabel MacKay-Clackett, a co-first author on the paper, reasoned that perhaps the worms are sensinghow strongthe smells are.

According to their hypothesis, the smells that are everywhere are not the most informative cues and would become desensitized in some way, meaning the worms would ignore them. This would leave the weakly present smells, which might be more useful in guiding behaviour, able to activate their receptors and cause signal transduction.

They also had a hunch for how this could work at the molecular level. A protein named arrestin is a well-established desensitizer of the so-called G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), a large family of proteins that perceive external stimuli, which odorant receptors belong to. Arrestins for example allow us to adjust vision in bright light by damping down signalling through the photon-sensing receptors in the retina.

The team wondered if arrestin might also act in worms to desensitize receptors for a stronger smell in favour of those for a weaker one, when both are sensed by the same neuron. To test their hypothesis, they exposed the worms lacking the arrestin gene to two different attractive smells in a Petri dish. They mixed one smell into the agar medium to make it uniform, and put the worms on top. The other smell was placed at one spot some distance from the worms.

Without arrestin, the worms were no longer able find the source of the weaker smell. Like in the human eye squinting in bright sunshine, arrestin helps remove an overpowering sensation ambient smell in this case so that the worms can sense a localized smell and move towards it, MacKay-Clackett says.

Arrestin is not required, however, when the smells are sensed with different neurons, suggesting that the worms employ the same discrimination strategy as the vertebrates when the smell signals travel down different axons.

The team looked at different sets of smells and neurons and found they all obeyed the same logic, Merritt says. They also used drugs to block arrestin and found that this too abolished smell discrimination.

The finding is significant because it is the first evidence showing that arrestin can fine tune multiple sensations.

There is no case known in biology before this where arrestin is being used to allow for discrimination of signals external to the cell, Merritt says.

He adds that the same mechanism could be playing out in other animals when multiple GPCRs are expressed on the same cell, especially in the brain. Our brains are bathed in neurochemicals that signal through hundreds of different GPCRs, raising a possibility that arrestin, of which there are four types in humans, could be key for information processing.

Our work provides one piece of puzzle how the worms amazing sense of smell works, but it also informs our understanding of how GPCR signalling works more broadly within animals, Merritt says.

The team's research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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Researchers crack 30-year-old mystery of odour switching in worms - University of Toronto

For the first time, scientists have created mouse embryos in the lab without using any eggs or sperm and watched them grow outside the womb. To achieve this feat, the researchers used only stem cells and a spinning device filled with shiny glass vials.

The experiment is a "game changer," Alfonso Martinez Arias, a developmental biologist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona who was not involved in the research, told The Washington Post (opens in new tab).

"This is an important landmark in our understanding of how embryos build themselves," he said.

The breakthrough experiment, described in a report published Monday (Aug. 1) in the journal Cell (opens in new tab), took place in a specially designed bioreactor that serves as an artificial womb for developing embryos. Within the device, embryos float in small beakers of nutrient-filled solution, and the beakers are all locked into a spinning cylinder that keeps them in constant motion. This movement simulates how blood and nutrients flow to the placenta. The device also replicates the atmospheric pressure of a mouse uterus, according to a statement (opens in new tab) from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where the research was conducted.

In a previous experiment, described in the journal Nature (opens in new tab) in 2021, the team used this bioreactor to grow natural mouse embryos, which reached day 11 of development in the device. "That really showed that mammalian embryos can grow outside the uterus its not really patterning or sending signals to the embryo so much as providing nutritional support," Jacob Hanna, an embryonic stem cell biologist at the Weizmann and senior author of both studies, told STAT News (opens in new tab)

Related: 'First complete models' of a human embryo made in the lab

After their initial success with natural embryos, the researchers wanted to try their hand at growing lab-made embryos in the mechanical womb.

To do so, they applied a chemical treatment to mouse stem cells that "reset" them into a naive state from which they could morph into any type of cell heart, liver, brain or otherwise. In a fraction of these naive cells, the team applied additional treatments to switch on genes required to make the placenta, and in a third group of cells they applied treatments to switch on the genes to make the yolk sac. "We gave these two groups of cells a transient push to give rise to extraembryonic tissues that sustain the developing embryo," Hanna said in the statement.

The scientists then placed these three groups of stem cells into the artificial womb to mix and mingle. The three flavors of cells soon came together to form clumps, but only about 50 out of 10,000 cellular clumps continued to develop into embryo-like structures and those that did only survived in the bioreactor for 8.5 days.

Over the course of those 8.5 days or nearly half of a typical mouse pregnancy the initially spherical embryos stretched out and became cylindrical, as would be expected of natural embryos, STAT News reported. The beginnings of the central nervous system began to emerge by day 6 and soon gave rise to a tiny, wrinkled brain. By day 8, the embryos had developed intestinal tracts and small, beating hearts that pushed blood stem cells through newly formed vessels.

The shape of internal structures and gene structure in the synthetic embryos differed slightly from those found in natural mouse embryos, the team noted.

In follow-up experiments, the researchers plan to study the chemical cues that push embryonic cells to become one type of tissue over another. What forces nudge certain stem cells to congregate and form the neural tube while others end up differentiating into the cells that line the intestines?

"Our next challenge is to understand how stem cells know what to do how they self-assemble into organs and find their way to their assigned spots inside an embryo," Hanna said in the statement. "And because our system, unlike a womb, is transparent, it may prove useful for modeling birth and implantation defects of human embryos."

In addition to serving as a research model, the artificial womb could also someday serve as an incubator for cells, tissues and organs grown for transplant procedures, he said.

"This is just one step, but a very important step for us to be able to study early development," Paul Tesar, a developmental biologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine who was not involved in the study, told STAT News. "We're crossing into the realm of being able to generate an embryo from scratch, and potentially a living organism. Its been a really notable switch for the field."

Of course, such research comes with heavy ethical considerations.

"The mouse is a starting point for thinking about how one wants to approach this in humans," Alex Meissner, a stem cell biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, told The Washington Post. "It's not necessary to be alarmed or raise any panic, but as we learn, it's important to have in parallel the discussion: How far do we want to take it?"

Originally published on Live Science.

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1st synthetic mouse embryos complete with beating hearts and brains created with no sperm, eggs or womb - Livescience.com

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rallybio Corporation (Nasdaq: RLYB), a clinical-stage biotechnology company committed to identifying and accelerating the development of life-transforming therapies for patients with severe and rare diseases, today announced that it has appointed Wendy K. Chung, M.D., Ph.D., to its Board of Directors.

Wendy is a tremendous addition to our Board of Directors. Her extensive clinical experience and deep scientific expertise will be a valued asset as we continue to advance our current product portfolio as well as bring additional candidates into our pipeline. We look forward to learning from her expertise and insights, said Martin Mackay, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Rallybio. On behalf of our directors, I am pleased to welcome Wendy to Rallybios Board.

As a clinician, I have seen firsthand the significant unmet need for transformative therapies for patients with severe and rare diseases. I look forward to utilizing my scientific background and prior experience to contribute to the Board and the work of the Rallybio team as the Company continues to advance their current portfolio of product candidates and evaluate potential assets for their pipeline, said Dr. Chung.

About Dr. Chung

Dr. Chung is an accomplished leader in the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases. She is a board certified clinical and molecular geneticist with more than 20 years of experience in human genetic research. Currently, Dr. Chung is the Kennedy Family Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the Director of Precision Medicine Resource for the Irving Institute for Translational Research at Columbia University. She has authored over 600 peer reviewed papers and 75 reviews and chapters in medical texts. Dr. Chung currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Prime Medicine. In addition, Dr. Chung is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Sage Bionetworks, Taysha, Helix, and Regeneron Genetics Center. Dr. Chung holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry and Economics from Cornell University, a Doctor of Medicine from Cornell University Medical College, a Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics from The Rockefeller University.

About Rallybio

Rallybio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company committed to identifying and accelerating the development of life-transforming therapies for patients with severe and rare diseases. Since its launch in January 2018, Rallybio has built a portfolio of promising product candidates, which are now in development to address rare diseases in the areas of hematology, immuno-inflammation, maternal fetal health, and metabolic disorders. The Companys mission is being advanced by a team of highly experienced biopharma industry leaders with extensive research, development, and rare disease expertise. Rallybio is headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut, with an additional facility at the University of Connecticuts Technology Incubation Program in Farmington, Connecticut. For more information, please visit http://www.rallybio.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on our managements beliefs and assumptions and on currently available information. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as may, will, should, expect, plan, anticipate, could, intend, target, project, contemplate, believe, estimate, predict, potential or continue or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements concerning Rallybios business development strategy and execution, its commercial planning, and the Companys growth. The forward-looking statements in this press release are only predictions and are based largely on managements current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that management believes may affect Rallybios business, financial condition and results of operations. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, but not limited to, our ability to successfully initiate and conduct our planned clinical trials, including the FNAIT natural history study, and the Phase 1 and or 1b clinical trials for RLYB212 and RLYB116, and complete such clinical trials and obtain results on our expected timelines, or at all, whether our cash resources will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements and whether we will be successful raising additional capital, our ability to identify new product candidates and successfully acquire such product candidates from third parties, competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and those risks and uncertainties described in Rallybios filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Rallybios Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2021, and subsequent filings with the SEC. The events and circumstances reflected in our forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur and actual future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Except as required by applicable law, we are not obligated to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise.

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Rallybio Appoints Wendy K. Chung, M.D., Ph.D., to Its Board of Directors - Business Wire

Luke Goldman was working as an ocean rescue lifeguard on the Jersey Shore when he decided that he wanted to study ecology. Now, he has moved up the East Coast to become a marine protector of a different sort: a researcher at the forefront of using eDNA to try and save the Atlantic cod.

After Goldman graduated from high school in his native New Jersey, he attended community college for a few years before applying to the University of Maine. He was attracted to the ample natural spaces that were perfect for a budding ecologist to study and explore, as well as the interdisciplinary nature of the Ecology and Environmental Sciences Program.

It is very easy to collaborate with other departments, Goldman says. Im able to take molecular biology and environmental courses, and philosophy and anthropology courses. I feel like you get those interdepartmental connections.

Goldman was first introduced to the concept of eDNA, where DNA in the environment is used to study the organisms living there, through a Research Learning Experience (RLE) course. The cutting-edge scientific technique immediately piqued his interest.

Its a field in its infancy. Its really only been around for 10 years, and for more specific fields of study like marine biology, its only been used for like five years. Its a frontier field in the sciences right now, Goldman says.

At the end of the course, he asked his professor Peter Avis if he had research opportunities to study eDNA. Avis said he didnt, but his wife Erin Grey, assistant professor of aquatic genetics and manager of the Grey Aquatics Lab, did.

Goldman formally met Grey at a university job fair, and she hired him to work in the lab in October 2021. Grey says that Goldmans strong background in both ecology and molecular biology that interdisciplinary blend that brought Goldman to UMaine in the first place made him a great fit for the eDNA project.

You need to be able to understand both, Grey says. He had that unique combination.

Goldman is working on a project that uses eDNA to determine cod spawning locations in the Gulf of Maine. Atlantic cod have been functionally extinct since the late 19th century due to overfishing and ocean warming. The loss of cod was devastating economically and ecologically for the Gulf of Maine, and the populations havent been able to rebound like some other over harvested species in the region once regulations were put in place. Marine scientists arent sure why, but one theory is that something is going wrong with their spawning. The exact locations and times of cod spawning are not well known in the Gulf of Maine, but may be easier to find with the help of eDNA.

We dont really know where they spawn, Grey says. We know a couple of areas, but its a big gulf and they spawn near the bottom. Since it can be easier to collect eDNA from water samples it might be easier for us to detect it.

Goldman takes water samples from spawning cod in a controlled lab environment and uses a process called qPCR, or quantitative polymerase chain reaction, to pick out specific genes only found in cod. Through the process, primers and probes act like selective magnets for the tiny gene sequence, which are multiplied until they are plentiful enough to be detected.

Depending on how long the DNA takes to amplify, Goldman can figure out whether the sequence of DNA he is looking at is background noise or significant enough to be related to spawning. Cod release great quantities of DNA into the water when theyre spawning, after all.

Hes really sort of taken ownership of the project, Grey says. The PCR assay in the beginning had a few kinks we had to work out and he really hunkered down and troubleshooted all that stuff.

Grey says that Goldmans work with eDNA is promising to detect cod in an area in general, but she also hopes to be able to involve eRNA into the project at some point. RNA are smaller subsets of DNA with specific instructions for, as Grey says, doing something in the moment. A cod makes RNAs in eye cells for making eye proteins, for example, or scale cell RNAs for making scale proteins.

In the same vein, the cod material collected in water samples where the fish are releasing their eggs and sperm will exhibit specific RNA related to spawning.

If we can find RNAs that are related to spawning, that would be game changing for the field, Grey says.

Eventually, researchers aim to be able to give fishermen the ability to collect samples on and send them to a lab to conduct eDNA assays to find cod in the field. Goldman even had the opportunity to go out with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute to see if they could catch any spawning cod in order to collect field samples for testing. They didnt catch any spawning cod that day Goldman said that future researchers will have to see if what he finds in the lab can apply to the field but he had a great day fishing regardless.

Goldman hopes to continue using his eDNA skills to solve complex environmental and ecological problems. His eventual goal is to use what he has learned in the Grey Aquatics Lab about eDNA to study fungi in soils, specifically how fungal communities have shifted in response to applications of synthetic fertilizer and the natural recovery that has occurred since fertilizer application has ceased. He is conducting an internship as an aquatic and wetland ecosystem technician for a Ph.D. student studying groundwater seepage, which he says has definitely reinforced his interest in soil.

Ive always been passionate about growing things and gardening and I want to have a farm some day. I took soil science [with Ivan Fernandez] last semester and I really fell in love.

But first, he says, Weve got to save the cod.

Contact: Sam Schipani, samantha.schipani@maine.edu

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Luke Goldman: Using eDNA to save the Atlantic cod - UMaine News - University of Maine - University of Maine

The Office for Research and Innovation has awarded funding to nine best-in-class projects for the inaugural Duke Science and Technology (DST) Spark Seed Grant program. This years winners include early- to mid-career faculty from across campus and the School of Medicine who were selected from a pool of 52 finalists for delivering innovative and creative ideas in pursuit of new directions and the enhancement of research and scholarship at Duke.

As new scientific discoveries and breakthroughs continue to surface at Duke, were excited by the novel ideas that our faculty have for tackling the worlds most pressing challenges through research said Jenny Lodge, Dukes vice president for Research & Innovation. The proposals of this years DST Spark Seed Grants winners embody how research can improve lives and we look forward to each PIs accomplishments over the next year.

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Project: Enabling Unbiased Discovery of Force-Sensitive Protein-Protein InteractionsPI: Brenton Hoffman, James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Brenton Hoffman studies how the cells of the body respond to getting squished or stretched. His team has developed a variety of sensors that measure, on a molecular level, the effect ofsuch forces on specific proteins and their function in living cells. But proteins rarely act alone. With support from a DST Spark Seed Grant, he plans to create technologies that will make it possible, for the first time, to understand how mechanical forces influence the networks of proteins that team up in the molecular machinery of the cell. Hoffman says the work could lead to new treatments for conditions such as cancer and heart disease.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES ANDPOLICY

Project: New Dimensions in Tropical Ecology: Megafaunal Effects on Biogeochemical Cycling in 3-DPI: John Poulsen, Associate Professor of Tropical Ecology

John Poulsen, an associate professor of tropical ecology, will be using terrestrial lidar scanning to measure forest structure in areas of Gabon that are with and without forest elephants in an attempt to measure the influence large animals have on carbon capture. Two years later, the same measurements will be repeated. The analysis will build connections with faculty in economics and computer science to quantify the value and impact of large herbivores on climate change dynamics.

MARINE SCIENCE AND CONSERVATION

Project: Revenue Positive Carbon Dioxide Removal Enabled by Carbonate Conversion and Marine Algae BioproductsPI: Zackary Johnson, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology in Marine Science

To combat global warming, we need techniques that suck up greenhouse gases, and Dukes Zackary Johnson envisions a way to do that: with tiny algae from the ocean. Johnson has been working on a project to capture carbon dioxide from the smokestacks of power plants and convert it into bicarbonate, which is then added to marine algae to boost their growth. Johnson says that the algae-based system could in turn provide heat, electricity and as much protein as soybeans making them a potential source of animal feed that wouldnt compete for farmland or freshwater. His method is still in the demonstration phase, but the DST Spark Seed Grant will help him take the concept from the lab and show whether it could be commercially viable at larger scales.

BIOSTATISTICS ANDBIOINFORMATICS

Project: Using Deep Learning To Train a Single-molecule DNA Sequencer to Accurately Identify DNA LesionsPI: Raluca Gordan, Associate Professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Computer Science, and Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Raluca Gordan is developing machine learning techniques for sequencing damaged DNA, which standard DNA sequencing technologies cant handle. She hopes to use these techniques to better understand how proteins bind to damaged sites within the human genome and inhibit their repair, and whether this binding process gives rise to mutations that can lead to diseases such as cancer.

CELL BIOLOGY

Project: Synchronized Clocks in Zebrafish PatterningPI: Stefano Di Talia, Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Orthopaedics

Stefano Di Talia, an associate professor of cell biology, will be studying oscillations in the activity of a kinase protein called Erk, which appears to be the timekeeper that signals regular patterning of vertebral segments in a developing zebrafishs spine. His group has recently discovered that Erk activity oscillates across the entire notochord and dictates the time at which precursors of the vertebrae begin to form. The group hopes to establish which mechanism controls the Erk oscillations and build enough data from this work in zebrafish to secure greater grant funding.

MOLECULAR GENETICS AND MICROBIOLOGY

Project: Interrogating Subcellular Gene Expression in the Developing BrainPI: Debra Silver, Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Cell Biology, and Neurobiology

Debra Silver, an associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, will be studying the localization of messenger RNA and localized gene translation in nervous system cells. These processes are key to guiding new connections in a developing brain and are particularly focused in just one part of neural progenitor cells. The project will be trying to develop a new technology to measure and control gene expression in just one part of the cell. Developing a new technology is not typically funded by NIH, but mastering the technique could open up many new grant opportunities and be valuable for understanding local gene expression in systems beyond the brain.

NEPHROLOGY

Project: Harnessing Female Resilience Factors to Promote Renal RepairPI: Tomokazu Souma, Assistant Professor of Medicine

Tomokazu Souma, MD, an assistant professor of nephrology and affiliate of the Duke Regeneration Center, will be using human-derived kidney organoids organs in a dish to identify new therapies to improve kidney repair and regeneration. Specifically, his lab hopes to follow up on a recent finding that females have greater resistance to acute kidney injury. They would like to see if these female resistance factors could be harnessed to treat kidney disease.

BIOLOGY

Project: Integration of Metabolomics and Proteomics Platforms To Resolve Rad6 Roles in Energy Production and Stress ResistancePI: Gustavo Silva, Assistant Professor of Biology

Gustavo Silva, an assistant professor of biology, will be building on his earlier findings in yeast and human cells to better understand the cells response to oxidative stress an overabundance of reactive oxygen molecules. His group identified new links between protein synthesis and energy production during stress, and the elucidation of this process requires tracking changes in the abundance of specific metabolites, which is a completely new direction for his lab. The Spark grant should help them develop new technologies and gather sufficient information for follow-up grant applications.

Project: K-12 Educational Inequality and Public Policy PreferencesPI: Sarah Komisarow, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics

When it comes to school funding, education policy expert Sarah Komisarow says more U.S. school districts are considering a new formula: one based on the needs of students. The idea is that some students have more needs than others, and schools that serve students with greater needs -- because they are learning English, or living with a disability, for example -- should get more funds. The DST Spark Seed Grant will allow Komisarow to collect much-needed data on how information about educational inequality affects peoples preferences for different K-12 spending policies, including equity-based approaches that direct more financial resources to disadvantaged students.

To learn more about the Duke Science and Technology (DST) Spark Seed Grant winners, visit research.duke.edu.

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Duke Announces Winners of the 2022 DST Spark Seed Grants - Duke Today

The University of Cincinnati is making a significant commitment of funds and resources to establish the latest innovation in microscopy as the focal point of the Center for Advanced Structural Biology in the College of Medicine. The project will be built out in three phases over the next five years. WVXU covered the story by interviewing Desiree Benefield, PhD, the lab manager and researcher Rhett Kovall, PhD, both of the Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology at the UC College of Medicine.

Cryo-EM technologyallows researchers to prepare and image samples at very cold temperatures to visualize them in a near-native hydrated state. This helps them get a look at proteins at the atomic level.

Were actually visualizing a single protein, says Kovall. This is quite different from other structural techniques where you dont get this direct visualization.

For research scientist and facility manager Benefield, PhD, its valuable for studying any kind of proteins that are related to human disease. She first learned about cryo-EM in graduate school.

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WVXU: UC scientists are deep-freezing molecules. Here's why they're so excited about it - University of Cincinnati

TARRYTOWN, N.Y., July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.(NASDAQ:REGN) today announced the winners of the 10th annual Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation, a competition designed to recognize excellence and creativity in biomedical research conducted by postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. Each year, Regeneron invites the country's leading research universities to nominate early career scientists. Applicants present their "dream projects" within the field of biomedical science to a committee of Regeneron scientists and leaders, describing and designing the research they would pursue if they had access to any resource or technology, to compete for the Regeneron Prize and an award of $50,000.

This year's winners are Ryan Emenecker, Ph.D., of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, in the postdoctoral fellow category, and Venkata (Sai) Chaluvadi of the University of Pennsylvania in the graduate student category. Meagan Esbin, a graduate student from theUniversity of California at Berkeley, received a $10,000 prize as an honorable mention. Seven other finalists received awards of$5,000each. In total,$155,000in prize money and donations was awarded to winners, finalists and institutions to advance innovative scientific research. The finalists were selected by a committee of senior Regeneron leaders and scientists.

"The Regeneron Prize celebrates the ingenuity of young scientists who are early in their careers but already on the cusp of the next big scientific breakthroughs," said George D. Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron. "Creativity is the engine that drives cutting-edge science, and both Ryan's and Sai's creativity shone brightly in their presentations. I was impressed by this year's winners for their determination to push the boundaries of science and demonstrate scientific courage."

Dr. Emenecker is a molecular biologist with a strong interest in the relationship between sequence composition and encoded function of intrinsically disordered proteins, which can impact aging and neurodegenerative disease. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Alex Holehouse, Ph.D., at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. A prolific researcher, Dr. Emenecker has been a part of over a dozen publications on topics ranging from biomolecular condensate function, to computational tool development, to organismic development.

Mr. Chaluvadi first developed an interest in immunology during his time in Dr. Susan Schwab's lab at New York University where he helped discover the roles of S1P in immune cell trafficking and function, which resulted in publications in Nature and Nature Immunology. He began exploring the intersections between immunology and other fields such as oncology and neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine. Work during rotations resulted in manuscripts related to tumor immunology and microglial replacement therapy that are in preparation. Currently, he is a member of the Bennett Lab, studying the contributions of diseased immune cells to the progression of Krabbe diseasea fatal neurodegenerative condition with limited available therapies.

Ms. Esbin studies transcriptional regulation, with her thesis work probing the human SAGA complex, an important regulator of gene expression. Ms. Esbin's most recent work in this area studied the structure of the SAGA complex and appeared last year in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Esbin took additional work helping to develop open-source methods for COVID-19 detection, illustrating her commitment to applying science to biomedical innovation.

"The Regeneron Prize encourages early career scientists to prioritize independent thinking and creative ingenuity as core components of their future work," saidDavid Glass, M.D., Vice President of Research and Chair of the Postdoctoral Program at Regeneron. "When it comes to the impact these young scientists will have on the world, the work they have presented this year is just the beginning. We applaud their innovative thinking and look forward to seeing what they accomplish next."

Requests for applications are distributed to academic institutions each December. Regeneron asks institutions to nominate two graduate students and two postdoctoral fellows. In addition to the dream project proposals, submissions must include a curriculum vitae and samples of publications that enable the selection committee to review each nominee's scholarly productivity. For more information, please email[emailprotected].

About RegeneronRegeneron (NASDAQ: REGN) is a leading biotechnology company that invents, develops and commercializes life-transforming medicines for people with serious diseases. Founded and led for nearly 35 years by physician-scientists, our unique ability to repeatedly and consistently translate science into medicine has led to nine FDA-approved treatments and numerous product candidates in development, almost all of which were homegrown in our laboratories. Our medicines and pipeline are designed to help patients with eye diseases, allergic and inflammatory diseases, cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, pain, hematologic conditions, infectious diseases and rare diseases.

Regeneron is accelerating and improving the traditional drug development process through our proprietaryVelociSuitetechnologies, such asVelocImmune, which uses unique genetically humanized mice to produce optimized fully human antibodies and bispecific antibodies, and through ambitious research initiatives such as the Regeneron Genetics Center, which is conducting one of the largest genetics sequencing efforts in the world.

Regeneron believes that operating as a good corporate citizen is crucial to delivering on our mission. We approach corporate responsibility with three goals in mind: to improve the lives of people with serious diseases, to foster a culture of integrityandexcellence,and tobuild sustainable communities. Regeneron is proud to be included on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the Civic 50 list of the most "community-minded" companies in the United States. Throughout the year, Regeneron empowers and supports employees to give back through our volunteering, pro bono, and matching gift programs. Our most significant philanthropic commitments are in the area of science education, including theRegeneron Science Talent Search and the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

For additional information about the company, please visitwww.regeneron.comor follow@Regeneronon Twitter.

Regeneron Media RelationsElla CampbellTel: +1 914-572-4003[emailprotected]

SOURCE Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

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Regeneron Announces the 2022 Winners of the Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation - PR Newswire