Researchers at the University of California, Davis have engineered dominant negative CD40L mutant polypeptides that inhibit CD40/CD40L-mediated signaling, offering therapeutic potential for inflammatory, immune disorders, and cancer with improved safety profiles.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a computer-implemented method to identify viral mutations that enhance transmission and predict their prevalence in populations over time.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) screening is a cornerstone of functional genomics, enabling genome-wide knockout studies to identify genes involved in specific cellular processes or disease pathways. The success of CRISPR screens depends critically on the design of effective guide RNA (gRNA) libraries that maximize on-target activity while minimizing off-target effects. Current CRISPR screening lacks tools that can natively integrate next-generation sequencing (NGS) data for context-specific gRNA design, despite the wealth of genomic and transcriptomic information available from modern sequencing approaches. Traditional gRNA design tools have relied on static libraries with limited genome annotations and outdated scoring methods, lacking the flexibility to incorporate context-specific genomic information. Off-target effects are also a concern, with CRISPR-Cas9 systems tolerating up to three mismatches between single guide RNA (sgRNA) and genomic DNA, potentially leading to unintended mutations that could disrupt essential genes and compromise genomic integrity. Additionally, standard CRISPR library preparation methods can introduce bias through PCR amplification and cloning steps, resulting in non-uniform gRNA representation.

A transgenic zebrafish model enabling controlled pancreatic β-cell ablation to simulate chronic hyperglycemia and study diabetes-related pathology.

Production of chiral chemicals through biotransformation requires an oxidoreductase enzyme and an efficient redox cofactor system comprising electron donors coupled to a dehydrogenase enzyme to regenerate the reduced cofactors.The researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), provide a way to computationally design and optimize hydrogenase enzyme interaction with biomimetic cofactor analogs to improve increase enzymatic efficiency. The group has produced the modified enzyme and show that it is capable of a diverse range of chemical biotransformation.

POEM is a groundbreaking 3D bioprinting technology enabling high-resolution, multi-material, and cell-laden structure fabrication with enhanced cell viability.

A revolutionary method for improving the efficiency and quality of reprogramming adult cells into stem cells or other therapeutically relevant cell types via adhesome gene manipulation.

Brief description not available

A novel RT assay for detecting chemical adducts on RNA, utilizing fluorescence quenching to indicate the presence of modifications.

Innovative cell lines enabling precise genetic modifications to advance research in gene function, disease modeling, and potential therapeutic interventions.

A novel motorized tool designed to precisely deliver retinal tissue during transplantation, enhancing outcomes for patients with retinal degeneration.

An advanced geometric method for comprehensive 3D cardiac strain analysis, enhancing diagnosis and monitoring of myocardial diseases.

A novel device leveraging centrifugal microfluidics to accelerate bacterial growth and rapidly determine antibiotic susceptibility.

This technology offers a sophisticated approach to detecting coronavirus infections, including COVID-19, and assessing immunity through advanced biochip systems

Nucleic acid therapies hold vast therapeutic potential. FDA approved therapies include mRNA vaccines against SARS-COV2 and CRISPR/CAS9 treatment to treat sickle cell.  Both therapies use non-viral methods to deliver designer nucleic acid therapies to cells. However, a limitation of these approaches is the lack of organ and cell-specific delivery. Controlling gene delivery and expression in various cell subsets is challenging. UC Berkeley researchers have shown that the nanoscale topology of CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (CpG-ODN) motifs can be used to stimulate various immune cell subsets and alter gene expression from exogenously delivered mRNA in distinct immune cell subsets. CpG-ODNs of different classes are known to induce different inflammatory profiles in immune cells based on the structure and nanoscale topology of the short DNA strand. The researchers have found novel nanostructures which can be used to present or deliver CpGs to various cell subsets and regulate gene expression in these subsets.

This technology enables precise, selective manipulation of magnetically barcoded materials, distinguishing them from background magnetic materials

Advances in biological research have been greatly influenced by the development of organoids, a specialized form of 3D cell culture. Created from pluripotent stem cells, organoids are effective in vitro models in replicating the structure and progression of organ development, providing an exceptional tool for studying the complexities of biology. Among these, cerebral cortex organoids (hereafter "organoid") have become particularly instrumental in providing valuable insights into brain formation, function, and pathology. Despite their potential, organoid experiments present several challenges. Organoids require a rigorous, months-long developmental process, demanding substantial resources and meticulous care to yield valuable data on aspects of biology such as neural unit electrophysiology, cytoarchitecture, and transcriptional regulation. Traditionally the data has been difficult to collect on a more frequent and consistent basis, which limits the breadth and depth of modern organoid biology. Generating and measuring organoids depend on media manipulations, imaging, and electrophysiological measurements. Historically are labor- and skill-intensive processes which can increase risks associated with experimental validity, reliability, efficiency, and scalability.

A cornerstone of bacterial molecular biology is the ability to genetically manipulate the microbe under study. Manipulating the genomes of bacteria is critical to many fields. Such manipulations are made by genetic engineering, which often requires new pieces of DNA to be added to the genome. It is often difficult to move genes into a recalcitrant destination organism due to surveillance systems (CRISPR, Restriction Modification) of the destination/host which degrade invading DNA . It may be commercially desirable to evade these systems in the destination organism. However, evading these systems may require significant experimental effort to design and implement.

A novel method for selectively targeting and modulating brain border-associated myeloid cells for the treatment of neurological disorders.

An engineered polymerase enabling the synthesis of threose nucleic acid (TNA) for advanced therapeutic applications.

An innovative mid-throughput technique for screening and optimizing threose nucleic acid (TNA) aptamers for protein-binding activity.

Advances in biological research have been greatly influenced by the development of organoids, a specialized form of 3D cell culture. Created from pluripotent stem cells, organoids are effective in vitro models in replicating the structure and progression of brain development, providing an exceptional tool for studying the complexities of biology. Among these, cortical organoids, comprising in part of neurons, have been instrumental in providing early insights into brain formation, function, and pathology. Functional characteristics of cortical organoids, such as cellular morphology and electrophysiology, provide physiological insight into cellular states and are crucial for understanding the roles of cell types within their specific niches. And while progress has been made studying engineered neuronal systems, decoding the functional properties of neuronal networks and their role in producing behaviors depends in part on recognizing neuronal cell types, their general locations within the brain, and how they connect.

X-radiation (X-ray) imaging is one of the most common imaging techniques in medicine. Presently, thin-film transistor flat panel detectors are the gold standard for X-ray detection; however, these detectors average across the absorbed X-ray spectrum and thus suffer from poor material decomposition and lesion differentiation. Modern efforts to address this focus on three methods of energy differentiation: dual-shot, photon counting, and dual-layer detectors. Dual-shot detection utilizes a single detector to image a patient with two shots of X-rays at low and high energies. While this has been shown to effectively differentiate between soft and hard tissues, (e.g., chest radiography) this results in a higher dose level to the patient and motion artifacts from slight movement between images. Photon counting detectors offer an alternative to multiple shots, providing high spatial resolution, low dose, and multiple energy binning with photon weighting. However, these detectors also require more complex circuit design for fast readout, have limited material options with great enough yield and detective quantum efficiency at low to mid energy ranges, and are limited in detective area. Dual-layer detectors that stack two detector layers to each process low and high energy X-rays remove motion artifacts by utilizing a single shot of polyenergetic X-rays. These most commonly employ two indirect detectors separated by a Cu filtering layer, which photon-starves the second higher energy detector. Unfortunately, this also requires a higher X-ray intensity, resulting in a higher dose level to the patient.

Advances in biological research have been greatly influenced by the development of organoids, a specialized form of 3D cell culture. Created from pluripotent stem cells, organoids are effective in vitro models in replicating the structure and progression of organ development, providing an exceptional tool for studying the complexities of biology. Among these, cerebral cortex organoids (hereafter "organoid") have become particularly instrumental in providing valuable insights into brain formation, function, and pathology. Modern methods of interfacing with organoids involve any combination of encoding information, decoding information, or perturbing the underlying dynamics through various timescales of plasticity. Our knowledge of biological learning rules has not yet translated to reliable methods for consistently training neural tissue in goal-directed ways. In vivo training methods commonly exploit principles of reinforcement learning and Hebbian learning to modify biological networks. However, in vitro training has not seen comparable success, and often cannot utilize the underlying, multi-regional circuits enabling dopaminergic learning. Successfully harnessing in vitro learning methods and systems could uniquely reveal fundamental mesoscale processing and learning principles. This may have profound implications, from developing targeted stimulation protocols for therapeutic interventions to creating energy-efficient bio-electronic systems.

Advances in biological research have been greatly influenced by the development of organoids, a specialized form of 3D cell culture. Created from pluripotent stem cells, organoids are effective in vitro models in replicating the structure and progression of organ development, providing an exceptional tool for studying the complexities of biology. Among these, cerebral cortex organoids (hereafter “organoid”) have become particularly instrumental in providing valuable insights into brain formation, function, and pathology. Despite their potential, organoid experiments present several challenges. Organoids require a rigorous, months-long developmental process, demanding substantial resources and meticulous care to yield valuable data on aspects of biology such as neural unit electrophysiology, cytoarchitecture, and transcriptional regulation. Traditionally the data has been difficult to collect on a more frequent and consistent basis, which limits the breadth and depth of modern organoid biology. Generating and measuring organoids depend on media manipulations, imaging, and electrophysiological measurements. Historically these are labor- and skill-intensive processes which can increase risks associated with known human error and contamination.