While the world battles a deadly virus that has changed the dynamics of the living world since the dawn of 2020, the scientists and data experts have been working their ways out to develop and discover procedures that might find a huge commemoration in the later days that are to commence. Out of these many inventions that were rendered historic in their essence, these are a few that might drop your jaws and enkindle the hopes of a new world.
- The CRISPR-Cas9 used for the first time within the human body-
It was in March, 2020 that the doctors at Oregon Health & Science University executed the first-ever in vivo CRISPR gene-editing procedure to attend to a blindness-causing gene mutation as part of the BRILLANCE clinical trial. The gene-editing tool has been used for a clinical trial sponsored by Allergan plc and Editas Medicine. Patients in the trial are observed to have a sporadic form of inherited blindness termed as Leber Congenital Amaurosis type 10, also known as LCA10 and CEP290-related retinal dystrophy, caused by a gene mutation that prevents the body from producing a protein needed to convert light into signals. In these cases, gene replacement therapy is not an option, which is why the scientists edited/deleted the mutation by forming two cuts on either side of it, banking on the ends of the DNA reconnecting to allow the gene to work as it should. This test has undoubtedly proved to form a further array of hope for the scientists to advance with the structured procedure in the coming years.
- A prosperous immunotherapy for a dog’s Canine Bone Cancer advances to Human Brain Cancer trial
It was in June 2020 that veterinary researcher Brian along with his team at the University of Missouri leveraged modified and custom-made personalized medicine to efficaciously treat a case of bone cancer in 14 dogs. By creating a vaccine from a dog’s own tumour, MU scientists worked with ELIAS Animal Health to target precise cancer cells and evade the toxic side effects of chemotherapy, while also opening a possible doorway to human clinical trials. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently commenced the procedures of trials for treatment of a form of cancer in humans called glioblastoma multiforme or GBM.
According to Brian’s study, researchers used the dog’s own tumour to generate a vaccine that was then injected into the patient to stimulate anti-tumour lymphocytes. The lymphocytes were then collected and expanded outside the body to create a transfusion of the patient’s immune cells. Compared with the average survival time with amputation and chemotherapy, the dogs that underwent the immunotherapy treatment lived several months longer. The study’s successful results helped the research team secure FDA approval to test the method on human brain cancer patients.
- American-made plutonium-238 used in commercial space entity
The launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience in November marked the first time a commercial entity prosperously supplied NASA astronauts to the high-technology lab floating in space. It was only a few months earlier to this that the latest Mars rover, Perseverance, launched in July, became the first rover powered entirely by the American-made plutonium. The United States of America had stopped generating plutonium-238 in 1988. It was only in 2012 that the Obama Administration and NASA came to an agreement with the Department of Energy to resume the production of plutonium-238 using NASA funds. The successful launch of Perseverance was the biggest milestone yet in that $15 million per year program. Similar to a few other overs on deep-space missions, Perseverance’s traveling power on Mars came from the thermoelectric-generators that create electricity from heat generated from the decay of plutonium-238 in the form of oxide-ceramic pellets. This is hence, how the rover’s multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator converts that heat into electricity to charge the lithium-ion batteries that aid the floating and symmetric movement of the rover and power the instruments it will use on the surface of the Red Planet as it pursuits for signs of ancient life and collects rock and soil samples for a possible return to Earth
- Citrus Derivative are ought to make transparent wood a 100 percent renewable-
It was only in 2016 that transparent wood was first developed and introduced by researchers at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, describing it as an innovative structural material for the construction of buildings. This kind of wood is known to let the natural light float through its composition and hence, story thermal energy. The key aspect of turning basic wood into a transparent composite material is to strip-out its lignin which is, in fact the major light-absorbing component. However, the empty pores that are left behind after the initiated absence of lignin needs to be filled with a material that restores the wood’s strength and hence, allows light to permeate.
The researchers have come up with a new composition that might end up as a more sustainable replacement. The new limonene acrylate it is made from renewable citrus, such as peel waste that can be recycled from the orange juice industry. An extract from orange juice production is used to create the polymer that restores the strength of the deligned wood and allows light to permeate, thus ensuring the quality of the wood. This inventions is set to aid the sustainable and energy- efficient goals of the growing world given that the material is made with no solvents, and all chemicals are derived from bio-based raw materials. The researchers claim that further advances could enable a yet unexplored range of applications, such as in wood nanotechnology, possibly for smart windows, wood for heat-storage, wood that has built-in lighting function—even a wooden laser.
References-
https://news.ohsu.edu/2020/03/04/ohsu-performs-first-ever-crispr-gene-editing-within-human-body
https://showme.missouri.edu/2020/precision-medicine-treatment-saves-family-pet/
https://home.cern/news/news/physics/lhcb-discovers-new-type-tetraquark-cern
